Healthcare Industry Job Growth Stays Strong as Labor Market Loosens

Four years ago, when the pandemic triggered the “Great Resignation” and a nationwide workforce shortage soon followed, employers at Greater Valley Health Center in Kalispell would go weeks without seeing a single job application for certain positions.

As healthcare workers faced increasing burnout and longtime employees took early retirement packages, the labor challenges came at a crucial time when the nonprofit health center disbanded from Flathead City-County Health Department. The move toward independence was necessary to expand the facility as demand for services outpaced supply.

In 2022, Greater Valley purchased Sykes pharmacy, expanded behavioral health services in schools and opened a clinic in Evergreen in 2023, which contributed to an additional 2,000 patients since last year. Next month, a new 33,000-square-foot facility in south Kalispell will open to patients after historically operating out of multiple buildings around the city, an expansion that will add nine more exam rooms.

Although Greater Valley has since expanded and the labor market has loosened since the peak pandemic days, CEO Mary Sterhan said that, while finding employees has improved, the struggle continues.

“All positions have been difficult to hire,” Sterhan said. “Some of it is getting applicants and some of it is getting applicants who show up for interviews but don’t show up for work – it’s been really odd. I’ve done this for a long time, and I’ve never seen an environment like this where people will just not show up for an interview or they’ll accept a position and not show up the first day.”

This behavior was more common when the workforce shortage peaked during the pandemic-era hiring crisis, but most job sectors are seeing a looser market in response to policies that have sparked trade wars, a reduction of the federal workforce along with concerns of an uncertain economy.

In August, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.3% compared to a rate that hovered around 3.5% in 2022 and 2023. During the same month, Montana’s unemployment rate was 2.9% and broke a record with the eleventh straight month under 3% and more than four consecutive years of unemployment at or below 3.4%.

Even as job growth slows nationwide – with the U.S. adding only 22,000 new jobs in August – Montana is still seeing steady growth among most job sectors.

According to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) 2025 Labor Day Report, a record of more than 560,000 Montanans were employed in 2024, which was driven by in-migration. Employment grew by 0.5% last year, adding more than 3,000 jobs.

Industries like manufacturing have suffered job losses but healthcare employment grew by 1,450 positions last year.

Logan Health in Kalispell has expanded its services dramatically in the last decade and became the largest independent health care system in Montana when it merged with Billings Clinic in recent years. In addition to Kalispell’s increasing demand – which has doubled in the last 10 years – the hospital now oversees nearly 70 clinics in areas including Eureka, Polson and facilities on the Hi-Line.

Currently staffing roughly 4,500 employees, Logan Health Vice President of Human Resources Austin Neese said that while the workforce shortage has eased since the pandemic, the department is constantly working to recruit professionals.

“Some of the workforce needs have changed since the pandemic,” Neese said. “Some of the most urgent needs were in the RN [registered nurse] space and that has shifted over time.”

Now, Neese says, openings for surgical and imaging technician positions are among the most difficult to hire, with travel staff filling those gaps as the healthcare providers work to recruit permanent employees.

Logan Health currently has between 60 to 70 travel staff at any given time, Neese said.

As of Sept. 23, there were 306 job vacancies at Logan Health, with positions ranging from security guards to cardiologists, according to CareerOneStop, a partner of the U.S. Department of Labor.

But Logan Health’s staffing shortage is not unique in the healthcare industry. DLI Commissioner Sarah Swanson attributes the tight labor market to Montana’s aging population combined with a higher volume of retiring practitioners.

According to 2020 Census data, the national demographic of people age 65 and over grew nearly five times faster than the total population over the 100-year period between 1920 and 2020. In Montana, 19.7% of its population is considered geriatric.

Statewide, there are more than 74,000 healthcare employees and DLI officials project employment to continue growing at an average annual rate of 1% over the next decade. The agency forecasts there will be more than 6,000 job openings per year through 2032.

While some industries like mining and wood products are declining in Montana, Swanson says most job sectors are growing in large part because of in-migration, despite a slowdown in other states.

“We’ve had tremendous growth for two consecutive years,” Swanson said. “We are still outpacing pre-pandemic growth when we look at that trendline, and it did occur immediately following the pandemic with a 6.6% growth in the economy. We added nearly 60,000 new jobs in Montana in the last five years, and our state workforce has really struggled to keep up with the post-pandemic growth.”

Flathead County in August saw an unemployment rate of 2.7% and in 2024 added 870 new jobs, representing 1% of the state’s growth.

“We are filling in some of those critical vacancies with net in-migration and new Montanans moving here,” Swanson said.

But even as Montana’s unemployment rate remains low, economists say the data is not always reflective of the job market since it only measures individuals seeking employment.

Jeffrey Michael, the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of Montana, says while unemployment rates remain low, the market is loosening.

“We’ve seen a transition in the labor market from when employers couldn’t find workers at all,” Michael said. “It’s something that is normalizing and if you’re used to everybody hiring and it’s easy to get a job – it’s not quite as tight as it was in the past.”

Recent controversy surrounding national data that reflected a weak labor market has highlighted how those numbers are revised, Michael said. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month announced the U.S. added 911,000 fewer jobs than it initially reported from March 2024 through the same month in 2025.

Michael said it’s important to note that the BBER has historically waited for the release of tax filing data, which is more accurate than monthly employer survey data.

According to quarterly Census data which reflects wages from employer tax filings, Montana employment is up 0.64% while Flathead County is up 0.7% from March 2024 to March 2025.

Job declines include manufacturing, which is largely due to last year’s closures of Missoula County’s two largest wood products employers, Pyramid Mountain Lumber and Roseburg Forest Products. Other losses include mining and construction while leisure and hospitality and professional services continue to add jobs.

Government jobs have seen a decline after the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the federal workforce was launched with the “Fork in the Road” program, which allowed employees to resign from their positions while retaining pay and benefits until Sept. 30.

Swanson at the DLI estimates roughly 700 jobs were reduced statewide. However, economists say those numbers are difficult to measure since employees who accepted “deferred resignation” will remain on the payroll until the end of the month.

“There’s a lot of confusion about how many federal jobs have been decreased,” Michael said. “For employees who took the ‘Fork in the Road’ offer – that kept them on the payroll till this month. We’ve seen a decrease in federal employees with people leaving but not being replaced.”

Additional federal policies like tariffs have contributed to job losses in other industries in Montana, Michael says, which has primarily impacted agriculture and construction.

While construction demand remains strong in Flathead County, building has slowed amid high interest rates, which have hovered around 6.5% in recent years. Meanwhile, tariffs have raised the price of materials. But despite the drop in demand, the labor force remains tight as employers struggle to find workers.

According to CareerOneStop, Knife River Materials was hiring for 20 positions in Kalispell, with positions ranging from concrete laborers to paving superintendents.

“For industries outside of healthcare, things have slowed down,” Michael said. “We see employers are being cautious and there’s some pullback of consumer spending. There’s certainly a huge amount of uncertainty around tariffs that have impacted certain businesses that are highly exposed that that and it’s made businesses more cautious going forward.”

“Unemployment is still in the low range nationwide and in Montana, we’ve been projected a slowdown for 2025 all year long,” Michael added. “So far, the data we can see seems to correspond to that.”

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