Montana faces a future of help wanted

Sep 11, 2016

Average Montana wages are increasing faster than the nation’s, unemployment is low overall and productivity has increased, according to the 2016 Labor Day Report authored by economists in the state Department of Labor and Industry. Those current statistics are very positive, but a potential crisis looms.

Worker demand is expected to keep growing faster than its worker supply. This isn’t news to Montanans who have been alert to demographic trends that began before the turn of the century. Montana’s population is aging faster than most states’ and older workers are retiring faster than younger workers are joining the labor market.
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With 6.5 percent of its labor force older than age 65, Montana has the second highest share of older workers in the nation. If Montana’s job growth continues, unemployment rates could dip below 2 percent in the coming decade, the DLI economists reported. They also wrote about solutions for the worker shortage:
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