State, and legislators, search for solutions to Montana’s looming labor shortage

Back during the height of the recession, when the timber industry was weathering the same storm of tumbling revenues and pink slips that plagued so many other Montana industries, the state’s Department of Labor and Industry made a strange connection. Tasked with helping out-of-work timber workers, the department began to steer them toward one of Montana’s fastest-growing occupations: nursing. It may sound odd, chief economist Barbara Wagner says, but the two occupations aren’t as different as you might think.

By Alex Sakariassen

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