Havre Chamber aims to help members find workers

With employers in the Havre area — and across the state and nation — having problems finding workers for open positions, the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce is stepping in to help its member businesses.

The Chamber is holding a job fair in Havre Tuesday, June 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Havre’s Holiday Village Mall for Chamber members to recruit workers.

Chamber Executive Director Jessica Faggerbakke said many Chamber members are frequently putting out posts looking for workers, so the Chamber figured it should try to help so they can better staff their businesses.

“I thought, what a great way for the Chamber to help its members,” she said. “Hopefully, they’ll find some really great people.

“… Everyone’s just struggling,” she added.

A release about the fair said the Chamber is eliminating resumes and specialized job applications, instead using a generic job application from Havre Job Services and encouraging on-the-spot interviews.

“The interview will allow employers to tailor their questions to determine if applicants are a good fit for them, and their business,” the release said. “Tables will be separated with adequate distance to provide privacy for interviewing.

“We ask job seekers to dress to impress, arrive with multiple copies of a completed generic job application, and be prepared for on-the-spot interviews,” it added. 

The applications are available at the Havre Chamber at 130 Fifth Ave. and at the Havre Job Service at 160 First Ave.

A flyer for the fair says people can fill out one of the applications and the Chamber will make copies for them.

A shortage of workers

Businesses, organizations and governments are having difficulties filling open positions in the region, throughout the state and throughout the country.

Unemployment continues at one of its lowest rates in decades, while the U.S. economy continues to perform strongly despite the high rate of inflation.

The Associated press reported Friday that U.S. employers added 390,000 jobs in May, extending a streak of solid hiring that has bolstered an economy under pressure from high inflation and rising interest rates.

Last month’s gain reflects a resilient job market that has so far shrugged off concerns that the economy will weaken in the coming months as the Federal Reserve steadily raises interest rates to fight inflation, AP reported.

The unemployment rate remained 3.6%, just above a half-century low, the Labor Department said Friday.

The job growth in May, though healthy, was the lowest monthly gain in a year. But it was high enough to keep the Fed on track to pursue what’s likely to be the fastest series of rate hikes in more than 30 years, AP reported. Stock market indexes fell Friday after the government released the jobs report, reflecting that concern.

Businesses in many industries remain desperate to hire because their customers have kept spending freely despite intensifying concerns about high inflation,” AP reported. Americans’ finances have been buoyed by rising pay and an unusually large pile of savings that were accumulated during the pandemic, particularly by higher-income households.

But many businesses — in virtually every economic sector — are having trouble finding workers to fill all the slots.

Part of that is likely something that was forecast a decade ago — the retirement of Baby Boomers without enough of the following generations to fill the spots.

In Montana, unemployment is even lower than the national average.

Montana’s Department of Labor and Industry reports the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Montana in April, the latest month for which data is listed, at 2.3 percent, more than 1 percent lower than the national rate.

Hill County’s April rate was even lower, 2.4 percent, with Liberty and Chouteau counties at 2 percent unemployment rates.

Blaine County’s rate was slightly higher, at 3 percent unemployment.

And that rate comes as employment specialists say Montana has more people actually working now than before the pandemic, but that statistic comes as more people have retired and some people have quit working multiple jobs.

But it means more jobs seem to be available than the number of people looking for work.

Labor and Industry’s webpage lists 182 people as unemployed in Hill County, while The National Labor Exchange website at http://usnlx.com lists 409 jobs in the county — and that is only the employers who have listed their jobs.

Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss, who also is a Democratic candidate for the state Legislature and faces Rep. Ed Hill, R-Havre, in the general election, said the worker shortage seems to be spread evenly throughout Montana, and probably beyond.

“It is definitely one of the primary concerns we hear from employers,” Tuss said. “I know the worker shortage has manifested itself in several ways, including area businesses only being open certain days every week.”

He said a primary reason cited for the problem is people retiring early, adding that he personally knows of quite a few people who have done so.

“Another interesting trend that’s happening is some people have transitioned from traditional work to remote work, meaning they are still in the workforce, but simply not as visible as they once were,” Tuss said. “They are taking advantage of being able to work from home, while still collecting a paycheck.”