In Montana, the cost of living and lack of affordable housing and child care contribute to growing workforce shortages

Rural Montana is a 'canary in the coal mine' for severe 
 labor shortages in needed sectors. (N. Fouriezos photo)

Across the country, the need for a younger workforce to fill a wide range of positions is reaching a critical point, but particularly for rural areas. Students and potential workers face a range of obstacles that prevent them from filing those roles, reports Nick Fouriezos of The Daily Yonder. In Montana, medical, academic and labor professionals are working to address these issues.

Lindsey Flather from Bitterroot Valley, Montana, is the kind of student Montana's new strategies aim to help. Fouriezos writes, "A working mother in her thirties, Flather decided to pursue a new career in health care. . . . And she is urgently needed. In Montana, 52 of 56 counties — including Ravalli County — are considered medically underserved, and nearly half of the state’s nurses say they plan on retiring or leaving the profession in the next five years."

Like many of her fellow students, Flather has faced long commutes for classes, a lack of child care options, and juggling to make work and school mend together. "At the same time, employers are desperate to get more people through these workforce pipelines," Fouriezos explains. "They, too, are challenged by geography, says Rebecca Conroy, the chief transformational officer at Bitterroot Health, a regional hospital in western Montana."

Yet even when needed professionals, such as medical assistants, graduate they often can't afford to live in the county where they are needed most. "The median rent in Hamilton, Bitterroot Valley's biggest town, is now $2,087, up 30% over the previous year," Fouriezos reports. "The lack of affordable housing makes it almost impossible to recruit out-of-towners, and the in-town workforce is drying up. The talent pipeline is thin, Conroy says. And the pressure is only growing."

"Employers like Conroy are the canaries in the coal mine of a growing talent shortage nationwide. So smoothing the route to jobs like medical assisting has become a key focus of Montana’s government and educational infrastructure," Fouriezos writes. "The state’s colleges recently partnered with the national nonprofit Education Design Lab to interview Conroy and local business leaders statewide about how they might create new educational opportunities, like a set of micro-credentials to allow people to build key skills in shorter courses over time."