Columbia Falls job fair draws a crowd as hundreds of positions open

Backslope Brewing needs dishwashers and line cooks. Kalispell Regional Medical Center could use 80 nurses as well as people to work in their information technology branch. Hertz car rental could use people to clean cars.

Those were just some of the jobs available during the third annual Columbia Falls Job Fair hosted by the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce and the high school last week.

With the statewide unemployment rate hovering at about 3.5 percent, demand for workers is high. But not all of the jobs pay that well and some gigs are admittedly tough.

Amanda Caldwell manages the Hertz car rental. She said last summer was their busiest ever and this summer looks to be just as busy if not more so.

She typically hires about 15 workers just to clean rental cars.

“This year I’m looking to hire at least double,” she said.

The job pays $12 an hour, plus incentives.

The pay isn’t great, but a lot of people like it because it’s not in the public eye, Caldwell noted.

Higher up the pay grade is IT work at KRMC. If a programmer knows networking or security coding, pay runs from $40 to $50 an hour, noted staff manning the KRMC booth.

Nursing also pays well. A registered nurse makes anywhere from $24 to $33 an hour.

The job fair hosted 62 businesses, had 144 people attend from the general public and more than 300 students.

Not everyone looking for a job was a traditional applicant, either.

Tom Mousel ran an industrial painting company, but while he’s retirement age, he wants to stay active.

“Retirement’s not for me,” he said, as he looked over the jobs available at the Timber Creek Village Assisted Living Center.

Not everyone is hiring immediately, however. The Forest Service had a booth, but firefighter Todd Hannan of the Hungry Horse/Glacier View district noted that most jobs for the upcoming summer have already been filled.

Applicants looking to fight fires for the agency should apply in early September, the summer before they actually want the job.

While some jobs don’t pay much now, they can be stepping stones to a future career.

Courtney Stone of Glacier Guides Montana Raft was looking to hire four “shop kids” — go-fers who do a variety of jobs for the company during the summer months, from helping out clients to portering supplies to backcountry locations to pulling knapweed along the highway.

The pay isn’t much — $12 an hour.

But it’s a stepping stone to becoming a guide.

“Ninety-nine percent (of our guides) have been shop kids at some point,” she said.