Bozeman: City changes from cow town to white collar city

BOZEMAN (AP) – It’s khakis and loafers instead of Carhartts and work boots in Bozeman.
Occupation information from long-form data collected in the 2000 Census shows that Bozeman is increasingly becoming
a white collar town. One in five workers in Gallatin County is employed in health, educational and social services.

Associated Press Billings Gazette

Add strong growth in other professional ranks, including finance and real estate, and clearly Bozeman and Gallatin
County are increasingly shaking the dirt from their roots in farming and forestry.
Employment in traditional industries is dropping fast. Resource industries such as agriculture, forestry and mining
dropped 21 percent in the 1990s – at the same time the county’s population grow 34.4 percent.

"We’ve certainly seen a strong growth in the demand for medical care," said Ron Farmer, vice president of First Security
Bank. "We’ve absolutely become a regional medical center."
The U.S. Department of Labor changed some industry classifications between 1990 and 2000, so employment numbers
are not comparable in certain areas. But looking at broad categories, Gallatin County clearly has seen some shifts in its
economy in 10 years.
Government employment now makes up 17.9 percent of the work force compared to 23.1 percent in 1990.

Farmer said news of layoffs at Montana State University used to send economic shock waves across the community.
The economy is much more balanced now, he said.
Stacy Shomento, an obstetrics physician, moved to Bozeman with her family in 1999 and is typical of many newcomers
to the area. She and her husband, Bill, wanted to live in a mountain town with other perks.

"We wanted to live in kind of a small town that has all the amenities of a bigger town, like the university and a good
medical community," Shomento said.
Bozeman native Steve Daines left Montana after graduating from Montana State University in 1984. But now a thriving
economy has allowed him to come back.
Unlike in the mid-1980s, when Bozeman’s economy was stagnant, startup companies in manufacturing and technology
are bringing new jobs to the area, Daines said.
"I’m thrilled by what’s happening," Daines said. "They’re making the pie bigger, if you will, rather than slicing up the pie in
smaller pieces."

The strong growth in medical and high-tech industries has spurred the construction industry, too. Nearly three times as
many Gallatin County workers worked in building trades in 2000 compared to 1990.
Household income, family income and per capita income all rose substantially in Gallatin County in the 1990s according to
information from the 2000 Census.
The median family income in Gallatin County increased by 20 percent, adjusted for inflation, from 1989 to 1999, to
$46,639. Median household income reached $38,120, while median per capita income was $19,074.

The number of families in Gallatin County reporting incomes of more than $150,000 quadrupled, to 616. The number of
families in poverty dropped by nearly 17 percent. The poverty threshold was $16,895 for a family of four in 1999.

But spiraling housing costs in the Bozeman area are eating up those bigger paychecks. In Gallatin County, 33 percent of
renter households have housing costs of at least 35 percent of monthly income, the Census Bureau reports.
Gallatin County reports the highest median home cost and the highest average rent of any Montana county

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