Montana businesses scramble to find quality workers

A couple of years back, 25 illegal immigrant workers were pulled off a single Whitefish job site in a short six months.

A couple of months back, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce http://www.kalispellchamber.com/ gathered for a big meeting to focus on affordable housing.

A couple of weeks back, Kalispell’s Job Service advertised 250 local openings, 370 in the greater Flathead area. All of which had one thing in common: “For the last several years, businesses have had a fairly hard time finding qualified employees.”

So said Joe Unterreiner, head of the Kalispell Chamber. His members have long been telling tales of a severely constricted work force, of more jobs than workers, and of a growing gap between the skills required and the skills in hand.

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/24/news/local/news04.txt