Job Ready history

The fuel that would ignite the company's potential was expansion on a national scale, but in 1991 Labor Ready comprised only eight offices--dispatch centers that served as matchmakers for the unemployed and the construction, light industrial, and small business clients that needed temporary help.

By the end of 1994, there were 51 dispatch offices, including four in Canada, but Welstad had not yet penetrated any markets in the Northeast and the Atlantic, and it maintained only a small presence in the Southeast with one branch office.

Prior to the company's initial public offering (IPO), it had increased the number of its branch offices to 106 by the end of 1995, a year during which the first Labor Ready office was established in the Northeast.

The logical alternative was an offering of stock to investors, which Labor Ready did in June 1996.

By the year 2000, United States students must be first in the world in math and science achievement.

Opportunity@Work was founded in 2015, in part to support and grow TechHire, a White House initiative launched by our co-founder Byron Auguste to connect overlooked communities with technology job openings.

Launched in late 2016 based on feedback from TechHire community partners, TechHire.Careers was an inclusive hiring platform to connect employers with individuals who possess vetted technical skills.

Our Talent Equity Fund, piloted in November 2017, offered an income sharing financing opportunity for low-income and overlooked Americans to upskill or reskill for a new career without bearing excessive financial risk.