With the busy summer season looming, many local businesses are gearing up to meet their seasonal staffing needs. Businesses ranging from Schellinger Construction, to Backslope Brewery, to Proof Research, turned out at the Columbia Falls Job Fair Thursday to find potential employees.

But many recruiters at the event said staffing has become more challenging than ever.

“We struggle with staff on a daily basis,” said Brenda Lynch with A-Plus Healthcare. “There’s such a shortage.”

The generally healthy economy has created a tight labor market nationwide, and in the Flathead Valley, the high housing costs and seasonal job market have exacerbated this trend. Employers in industries including health care, construction, service providers and recreation said they have found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified workers.

At the job fair, most employers expressed dismay they would be able to fill all of their open positions for the summer.

“Last summer, we were never fully staffed,” said Faith Bengston with the West Glacier KOA. The campground requires a full staff of about 60 people, Bengston reported.

But lately, they haven’t been able to fill all these positions, especially for the less glamorous jobs such as housekeeping. Bengston was one of many recruiters who said she had struggled to find employees who were interested and qualified for these jobs.

Tim Secord at Schellinger Construction Company agreed with this observation.

“Definitely out in the field we have staffing issues,” Secord said. “Manual labor’s a thing of the past.”

Secord said it’s particularly difficult to hire staff, especially younger workers, when there are so many available positions throughout the valley. With so much competition, he said it’s hard for industries like construction work to compete with jobs that might seem more attractive, higher-paying, or convenient for employees.

“Our problem is being willing to travel,” Secord said. He said about half of the people he talked to at the job fair became disinterested when he mentioned they might have to travel around the state with the company.

Lynch agreed that jobs with atypical schedules or inconvenient requirements are particularly hard to fill. A-Plus Healthcare employs personal assistants, nurses and certified nursing assistants who travel to assist patients around the valley.

“It’s not an eight-hour shift, and people have to drive their own vehicles,” she noted. She said these factors have made it a constant struggle to find caregivers.

But the primary challenge identified by recruiters is a lack of affordable housing.

“If you’re working in the service industry, it’s almost impossible to make rent,” Bengston stated. “We have to refuse a lot of applications because we can’t provide housing.”

At Schellinger Construction, providing housing has been one of its strategies to try to make their work more appealing to workers. They created a camping area with power and bathrooms where employees can park campers while they work.

“It makes it more convenient and accommodating for our employees,” Secord said.

The employers who were out in force at the job fair said smarter recruiting is another strategy they’ve tried to implement to address staffing needs. Bengston said they start their summer hiring in January, and Lynch said they have tried to diversify their recruiting methods, especially online.

Another big component for many of the employers is trying to generate interest in their work with the workforce’s next generation. Justin Meccia with Keller Williams Northwest Montana Realty is debuting a program to introduce high schoolers to real estate careers, known as Quantum Leap Youth, because he said the industry doesn’t excite a lot of teenagers. He said he hopes the program will “inspire” future Realtors.

Bengston, meanwhile, said high-schoolers are some of their most dedicated workers, but they still don’t fill the need for qualified staff at the campground. She said they have had to resort to recruiting a large number of international staff because the local workforce simply doesn’t meet the demand.

“It’s hard to find local people,” she lamented. “We have a lot of international workers. We have to.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.