Job fair a magnet for local workers

Hundreds of job seekers filtered into the Flathead Valley Job Fair on Thursday to meet with employers hoping to fill roughly 1,000 job openings around the valley.

More than 75 businesses set up booths at the fair, located at Flathead Valley Community College. Roberta Diegel, representing the Flathead Job Service, said roughly 30 employers sat on a waiting list for the event.

“We get almost as many calls from employers desperately searching for skilled workers as we do people searching for jobs, and really begging for employees,” Diegel said.

Opportunities at the job fair ranged from positions with the Department of Transportation to fast food chains. Diegel said most of the employers she had worked with recently were trying to fill positions in construction or health care.

The event kicked off less than a week after the Montana Department of Labor and Industry announced the state’s unemployment rate grew in March by one-tenth of a percent, reaching 4.3 percent.

The department’s commissioner, Pam Bucy, said in a prepared statement that the slight growth in unemployment was due to more workers entering the market tied to a statewide wage growth.

According to the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, personal income increased in 2015 by more than 4 percent in Montana. The Department of Labor and Industry recorded that Montana’s labor force grew by 654 workers during March.

While Flathead County’s unemployment rate has dipped slightly since last year, it still hovers above the state’s average at 7.1 percent.

Barbara Wagner, the chief economist for the Department of Labor and Industry, said that since the 2009 recession, Montana’s unemployment rates have recovered ahead of the nation’s. However, she said Northwest Montana lagged behind with the rest of the country.

“Northwest Montana was hit a little harder than other areas in the state. But we’re starting to see a more rapid job growth in the region consistently for the last few months,” she said.

Health care is a growth industry in the Flathead Valley as well as statewide. According to a Bureau of Business and Economic Research study released this year, Montana will need 40 percent more health-care workers in the next decade to match the state’s population growth.

Timber Creek Village assisted living facility had representatives at the job fair hoping to fill two job openings.

“In the valley, there really has been a high turnover with nurses or certified nursing assistants,” Cori Malloy said, the company’s administrator. “Everywhere you look, places are looking for qualified professionals.”

Chase Johnson, a talent acquisition specialist at Kalispell Regional Healthcare, said the company has at least 200 job openings. At the same time, he said his department receives 30 to 40 applications a day.

Johnson said when looking through applications, the organization searches for people willing to learn, even if they need some extra training.

“We see a lot of people without experience here, so we really encourage people to use the resources, at the college and with us, to work towards a job in health care,” he said.

Alicia Aubart, 29, said she’s been looking for a job as a medical assistant since January. She said with the help of Flathead Job Service, she’s reorganized her resume and trained for upcoming interviews.

An hour into the job fair, she had dropped off her resume at five tables.

“I haven’t known until recently that the jobs really are out there,” Aubart said. “I feel really grateful for this day, because if I don’t get a job I’m trained for by the end of April, I’ll take anything.”

For more information about the Flathead Job Service, go to http://jobservices.dli.mt.gov/about-job-services/kalispell.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.