Help Wanted! Montana Needs Workers

Fueled by job growth around the Bakken oil fields, Montana has fully recovered from the lingering recession, reaching employment levels not seen in five years, according to a state economist.

But businesses desperately need new workers to meet growing demand and replace retirees, or they will struggle to grow, said Barbara Wagner, chief economist of the state’s Department of Labor and Industries. Montana gained about 10,000 jobs in the first four months of 2014, equal to the total job gains in both 2012 and 2013.

“For Montana, and the United States as a whole, we have a huge baby boomer population that is retiring, and there is not enough workers, or enough people period, to replace the baby boomers,” Wagner said.

“It’s pretty hard to run your business when you can’t find workers. ... People lose money in their business when they can’t find workers,” she said last week.

In April, the most recent data available, Montana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, the lowest in more than five years. The last time the state’s jobless rate fell below 5 percent was August 2008, just as the recession began strangling the economy nationwide.

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