Montana grapples with lack of qualified workers

Cable Technology http://www.cablemt.com/ , the year-old company whose workers assemble high-tech wire harnesses for Boeing and other major companies, hoped to increase its well-paid workforce from 20 to 60 in the second half of last year. Instead, it now has close to 35 workers and is hoping to ramp up another 10 to 20 next month, president Ed Buttrey said.

The former Sears store downtown has been reconfigured for as many as 300 work stations, and those stations could be staffed by two shifts of workers if the business takes off as Buttrey hopes.

"We’re not as far along as we’d expected to be and are having a little trouble finding the right people, possibly because of the low jobless rate," he said. "The catch is we need people with aptitude to do sophisticated assembly work, and sometimes we don’t know if they’ll work out until we try them."

By PETER JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Writer

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