Are care facilities struggling to hire? Some refuse to say

Boulder, a town once awash in care workers who helped power the local economy for decades, has a new and unfamiliar problem: The town’s residential facilities are struggling to find workers. One facility that is overcoming staffing shortages has found success with the same tactics that seem to be proving effective in the broader economy—higher wages and geographically broad recruitment—but other facilities refused to provide any detailed information.

Worker shortages are not unique to facilities that provide residential care. By the end of last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate was 3.9%—in Montana it was 2.8%—meaning that nearly all workers in the labor force were already employed, leaving few workers available to take open positions.

The four residential facilities that remain on the campus of the former Montana Developmental Center, which closed in 2018 and took about 250 jobs with it, house a diverse array of people, from male prisoners with medical needs at the Department of Corrections’ Riverside Special Needs Unit to teenagers struggling with behavior issues rooted in trauma at Youth Dynamics’ Alternative Youth Adventures facility. The Elkhorn Treatment Center serves women working to break free from addiction. The state of Montana’s Intensive Behavior Center—the last remnant of the MDC—houses up to 12 people with profound mental disabilities.