Our Viewpoint

Last month, the Thompson Falls Chamber of Commerce (for which I am the secretary) and Job Service Thompson Falls sponsored a job fair at Thompson Falls High School. We advertised in The Ledger and on social media. At the time, there were more than 100 job openings listed at our local Job Service.

We had 20 employers and organizations sign up to attend the job fair. Others we spoke with couldn't attend the job fair, but expressed a need for employees. The job fair was held on a Thursday in mid-afternoon, hours that others who hosted job fairs in surrounding counties said were the most popular.

In three hours, we had less than a dozen job seekers walk through the job fair. This was shocking. After, we talked about the lack of job seekers and discussed why attendance was so low. While there isn't one key answer, we really started looking at what is changing in Sanders County.

There's no doubt we have more people moving in to Sanders County. However, the demographics are changing. Montana is a wonderful place to raise a family, but more and more people are also choosing to retire here. Another thing that COVID-19 taught us was working from home is a lot easier. We've met people moving to the area who are able to keep their jobs and work remotely. So as the population increases, the number of people looking for work does not, even though the demand for services and employees to deliver those services rises.

We learned some lessons at the job fair. If someone ever tells you they can't find a job in Sanders County, it's definitely not for lack of available positions.