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Need a job? Try Goodwill Industries-Suncoast

The agency tops others in job placements.

By Christina Rexrode, Times Staff Writer
Published July 4, 2007

The Tampa Bay jobs machine is alive and well, and here's more proof:

Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, based in St. Petersburg, helped 24,927 people find jobs last year - more than any other Goodwill agency in North America.

In fact, Goodwill-Suncoast has been No. 1 in that category for five of the past seven years, said spokeswoman Michael Ann Harvey. (In the two "off" years, it placed second and third.)

Harvey credits the agency's success to its close partnership with WorkNet Pinellas.

Carol Nilsen sought out Goodwill and WorkNet when the medical-billing company where she worked was shut down.

"This was the first time in my life that I ever had to go to unemployment," said Nilsen, 63, a St. Petersburg resident. "Which was a little scary, because I am single and I have a mortgage."

Through help from Goodwill and WorkNet, Nilsen attended a resume workshop, enrolled for a 10-week crash course in Microsoft Office and QuickBooks, and talked with a career counselor about how she wanted to put her associate's degree in accounting to use.

In January 2006, a few weeks after finishing the computer course, she landed a job as accounting administrator at R.J. Bunbury Co., a building contractor in Clearwater. The pay is better than at her previous job, Nilsen said, and the work is more challenging.

Without Goodwill, she figures, she would be filling a job just like her old one.

Goodwill-Suncoast serves 10 counties, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus.

Fast Facts:

Florida agencies lead in helping find jobs
There are 171 Goodwill agencies in North America. Here are the top five in job placement, followed by the city where they have headquarters and their number of job placements in 2006:
1. Goodwill Industries-Suncoast (St. Petersburg; 24,927)
2. Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey (New York City; 12,945)
3. Goodwill Industries of North Florida (Jacksonville; 12,071)
4. Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette (Portland, Ore.; 8,160)
5. Goodwill Industries of Central Florida (Orlando; 5,742)

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 23:04:19]