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Job postings, though numerous, remain unfilled

Job Service postings

Kalispell 482

Billings 395

Great Falls 393

Bozeman 292

Missoula 276

Polson 62

Libby 39

T. Falls 19

There are a number of job openings in the Flathead Valley, but finding people to fill them is becoming more of a challenge, according to state information and some local employers.

By Alan Choate
The Daily Inter Lake

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There are several factors at play, according to Patti McCubbins, the Job Service supervisor of employment services.

One is that many available jobs, especially the higher-paying ones, require skills that available workers don’t have. Other positions offer low wages and few if any benefits, making them unattractive to people looking to earn a living.

Furthermore, the population growth in the valley doesn’t necessarily mean a larger pool of workers.

"There is a shortage because of our population," McCubbins said. "A lot of people who come to the valley are looking to change careers, or only want to work part time" — or may not be looking for work at all.

The Flathead Job Service site in Kalispell, which also oversees the locations in Polson, Libby and Thompson Falls, now has more job postings than any other city in Montana, and some of them have been open for months, McCubbins said.

Some of those are skilled positions in manufacturing or the medical field, and while people here are interested in the jobs, finding someone with relevant or tranferable skills often proves impossible.

Several companies, including Semitool and Sonju Industrial, have run into that problem while looking for machinists.

"Manufacturing in the state of Montana — there hasn’t been much," said Dick Sonju, who owns the aerospace parts company. "Jobs are coming here for high skills, but I’ve been having to go out of state consistently [to find workers]."

The alternative, he said, is hiring someone without experience and training them on the job — "But that’s hard."

"It hurts our bottom line, because we want employees who are part of the solution, not part of the problem," said Sonju. "Not having the right employee is going to cost you."

Executives at National Flood Services, which administers insurance policies, have also expressed worries about being able to find enough employees to keep expanding here, as have owners of companies doing value-added wood products manufacturing.

Those jobs, of course, could constitute a worker’s career. Employers looking for retail clerks, cashiers and other more general work are also not filling openings, and often low pay is to blame.

"What it comes down to is the wages are killing them," said McCubbins. "The wages are killing them."

These positions — assembler, car washer, service representative — often pay less than $8 an hour, apparently not enough to entice someone away from a job search or an existing position at a similar wage.

Pay has long been a problem in Montana, where per capita personal income in 2003 was just under $26,000 a year — 44th in the nation.

It’s not a picture that’s likely to improve soon, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. The agency estimated that between 2000 and 2010, the top three job categories in terms of openings would be retail sales, cashiers and waitstaff.

Merle Axford manages the Kalispell Wal-Mart, which with about 300 workers is one of Flathead County’s largest employers.

He said that finding employees is difficult at some points in the year, but that he can usually hire the people he needs. However, he sympathizes with business owners who have trouble filling open positions.

"It impacts you from a customer service standpoint — you can’t serve the customers like you need to," Axford said. "It affects the [employees], because you can only work people so hard for so long.

"If you can’t find people for those spots, you’re going to burn people out."

Reporter Alan Choate may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at [email protected]

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