The longtime owners of Black Cat Bake Shop in Missoula say small businesses are struggling to fill open positions right now as the economy heats up, but the available labor pool is still relatively small.

“We have four positions open,” Christy explained. “One is for a barista. We’ve gotten maybe three to four applications for that job, when we would usually get 20-25. We have three back-of-house positions and we’ve gotten no applications.”