• Montana contractors are struggling to hire due to a construction labor shortage.
• Many contractors say they are actively recruiting Gen Z to get more young people into trades.
• Some firms have apprenticeship programs that help young workers learn on the job.

Although Montana's population has grown considerably in recent years, it's facing worker shortages in several trades, according to a September report from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

Construction and healthcare were identified by Sarah Swanson, the department commissioner, as industries that would "need considerably more employees between now and 2032."

Contractors say that although demand for construction in Montana is strong, they can't hire enough people to keep up with all the potential work.

Now some Montana contractors are investing in recruiting efforts to attract more workers to the field, including by launching educational and apprenticeship programs and visiting high schools to encourage Gen Zers to consider construction as a career.

"We're trying to prove and show that these hands-on careers do have value," Bill Ryan, the education coordinator at Dick Anderson Construction, one of the largest contractors in Montana, told Business Insider.

"The tide is turning a little bit," he said. "We're starting to see more Gen Z consider going into trades."

Contractors are raising wages to attract workers

The construction labor shortage is not just hitting Montana, putting added pressure on contractors trying to hire.

Brian Turmail, the vice president of public affairs and workforce at the Associated General Contractors of America, told BI contractors around the US are struggling to fill roles.

AGC's annual workforce survey released in December found 94% of contractors said they had openings that were difficult to fill.

Ken Simonson, the chief economist at AGC, told BI that the number of workers in construction in Montana grew by 7% year-over-year as of October, compared to 3% growth nationally. Even as the sector is growing in the state, there's still more roles to fill.

Turmail said one factor driving the shortage is not unique to construction: an aging workforce.

"We just have a lot of people hanging up the tool belts and moving off to Florida to retire," he said.

He said there's also been about 40 years of federal government policy that focused on encouraging every student in America to go to college to get a four-year degree and work in the "knowledge economy."

As a result, he said there's been underinvestment in vocational or technical training, and in turn fewer young people pursing trades.

Some construction companies have tried to draw more people to the field with proactive recruiting efforts and higher wages — including trying to attract workers from out of state. Montana has already lured a high number transplants in part due to a relatively lower cost of living, especially when compared to a state like California, where many have moved from.

Ian Baylon, a tradesman from California, told BI earlier this year that when he visited Montana in 2022 and was considering moving there, he decided on a whim to see if anyone was hiring.

When he reached out to a company about an opening, they quickly invited him in for an interview. A week later when he was back home, they offered him the job — matching his Bay Area salary, plus moving costs and other perks.

In Montana, wage growth in construction grew annually by an average of 0.6% from 2020 to 2023, according to the state government report, with an average salary of $67,386.

Still, some say the growth in wages has not been enough to keep up with the rising costs of living in the state. An analysis by Construction Coverage, an industry site that reviews construction software and other services, found the average construction worker in Montana would need to work 68 hours a week to afford a median-priced home.

Apprenticeship programs allow young workers to 'earn and learn'

Two of the largest contractors in Montana told BI that folks interested in getting into construction do not need any experience in the industry to get hired — they can learn on the job.

Representatives of both companies, Dick Anderson and Sletten Construction, said they also have dedicated apprenticeship programs that are a draw for new workers to the field, especially young people.

Ryan, of Dick Anderson, said he was hired by the company in 2021 to develop an education program that would help attract and retain employees. The four-year apprenticeship program allows employees to work and earn while also enrolling in classes at a college they partner with. Students who complete the program can come out of it with an associates degree, real work experience, and actual earnings.

While jobs in construction do not require an associates degree, Ryan said they can help with career advancement and promotions, as well as satisfy a desire to pursue some level of college.

"When we are talking to young people and mom and dad are saying, 'You're not going to work. You need to go to college,' we can at least say, 'Well, what if they're doing both at the same time?'"

Michelle Cohens, who works in human resource management at Sletten, said the company also has a four-year apprenticeship program that allows employees to "earn and learn." Employees in the program also take a week several times a year to do trainings with the union, and then come back and hop right back into work.

Both companies said they've developed relationships with high schools and high school educators to help reach young people, who they said seem increasingly open to forgoing college and considering trades.

After several years of trying to get in front of students, Cohens said the efforts do seem to be paying off, with more reaching out about jobs. She said young people are drawn in by the chance to work with their hands rather than sit at a computer all day, and the chance to avoid taking on student loans.

"We highlight how good paying jobs they are, how you can get into the trades right out of high school or without any true knowledge," she said, adding, "You're not paying us to learn, we're paying you to learn."

David Smith, executive director of the Montana Contractors' Association, said companies are also evolving their culture to meet Gen Z workers where they're at. Young people today, he said, don't necessarily want to work 55 hour weeks in the summer. They want breaks. They want to take time off.

In the last five or ten years contractors have realized "you can't just throw a job out there and say, 'Hey, we pay big wages,'" he said. "You've got to have other things, and the construction world has to think differently too."

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• The red-hot US housing market could cool off slightly in 2025, making it easier to buy a home.
• Expect stable or declining mortgage rates and more housing inventory, according to Redfin.
• However, it's still prohibitively difficult for younger homebuyers to break into the market.

The American dream of home ownership has become increasingly harder to achieve in the last few years. Home prices are elevated, mortgage rates are high, and housing supply is constrained. That's not to mention the growing threat of climate change, which is driving up housing costs such as insurance, HOA fees, and property taxes in high-risk states.

There's both some good and bad news on the horizon for homebuyers, according to housing market experts.

The good news? On the whole, it'll be easier to buy a house in 2025. But the bad news, for younger homebuyers at least, is that's mostly just the case for boomers. Homeownership is actually looking as distant as ever for first-time buyers, especially Gen Z and millennials.

3 reasons it'll be easier to buy a house in 2025

First, housing prices are projected to increase slower than in previous years. Redfin economists Daryl Fairweather and Chen Zhao predict that median US home-sale prices will rise by 4% in 2025. Goldman Sachs has a similar outlook for 2025, predicting that US home prices will increase by 4.4%. That's roughly in line with median wage growth. Considering that US home prices shot up over 40% between March 2020 and January 2024, this sanguine prediction is good news for prospective homebuyers.

Another impediment to homeownership has been high mortgage rates, which have more than doubled in the last few years. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has risen from below 3% in 2021 to around 7%.

While a 7% rate is still high historically, it's a sign of improvement from this housing cycle's high of 7.8% in October 2023. And rates could come down further in 2025, according to housing market experts. Redfin expects mortgage rates to stay the same or decrease next year. Realtor.com forecasts mortgage rates to end 2025 at 6.2%.

Lastly, experts predict that new housing inventory will hit the market, bringing relief on the supply side. A Republican sweep in Congress is a positive sign for homebuilders, as the construction industry will benefit from fewer regulations, according to Redfin.

In October before the election, Jeffery Roach, chief economist of LPL Financial, said that an increase in housing starts, or construction of new residential housing units, was a signal for more single-family homes hitting the market over the course of the next few quarters. According to Realtor.com, housing starts for new single-family homes could hit 1.1 million in 2025, a 13.8% increase.

All of these factors could improve the housing market going into 2025. Redfin predicts that home sales will increase anywhere between 2% and 9% next year.

No houses for young homebuyers

But unfortunately, if you're a first-time homebuyer, you're probably out of luck. Redfin doesn't expect the increase in home sales to be driven by young or working-class buyers. It's looking likely that any new housing inventory that hits the market will go toward older Americans first.

"Instead, affordable homes will be snapped up by older buyers who are priced out of higher price tiers," Fairweather and Zhao wrote in a recent report.

Indeed, first-time homebuyers are having unprecedented difficulty in the housing market. It's typically more difficult for first-time buyers to purchase a home because they don't have funds from selling a previous home to use for a down payment and mortgage payments, Redfin said in a June report, but today's housing environment is especially hostile towards young buyers.

Wages simply haven't kept up with the pace of home price increases over the past five years. According to Elijah de la Campa, a Redfin senior economist, the cost of starter homes have increased twice as fast as incomes during that time. Additionally, for Gen Z and millennials, student loans and credit card debt are emerging as roadblocks to homeownership, as it's difficult to qualify for mortgages with a poor credit score and high levels of debt.

As a result, the median age of first-time homebuyers is now 38, according to the National Association of Realtors — an all-time high. That's up from 35 in 2023. First-time homebuyers are also an increasingly smaller proportion of the market, at just 24% in the 12-month period ending in June 2024. The year prior, that proportion was 32%.

Comparatively, boomers have an advantage in the housing market. According to Edward Yardeni, president of financial research firm Yardeni Research, boomers own roughly half of the nation's net worth and homeowner equity, giving them a leg up in the housing market. Now, as boomers age and look to downsize their homes or move elsewhere for retirement, they can take advantage of the home equity they've amassed from years of home ownership.

"Gen Zers, meanwhile, will keep living with family or renting until well into their 30s," wrote Fairweather and Zhao.

• Fixer-uppers aren't the bargain they once were.
• Older homes are now nearly as expensive as new builds.
• The housing shortage and high mortgage rates have reduced existing home inventory.

If you're looking for a deal in the homebuying market, you might want to ditch the fixer-upper and spring for a brand-new home.

For the last half-century, newly-built homes in the US have sold for much more, on average, than older homes. But these days, new homes for sale are less expensive per square foot than existing homes. Overall, newly constructed homes are selling for just 3% more than older homes, down from an average of 16% more since 1968, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Prices for existing homes have risen as fewer of them are on the market. The inventory of existing homes being resold has fallen significantly in recent years. As of March 2024, the number of existing homes for sale had fallen to 1.1 million from 1.7 million in 2019, and sales of existing homes hit a near 30-year low last year, a Harvard report found earlier this year.

High mortgage rates could be exacerbating that shortage of existing homes, as many homeowners are putting off a move and waiting for the cost of a home loan and home prices to come down.

But this trend might be turning around. Sales of existing homes are on the rise in the Midwest, South, and West, the National Association of Realtors recently reported. "The worst of the downturn in home sales could be over, with increasing inventory leading to more transactions," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.

As rates fell slightly this year, more homeowners put their homes up for sale and new home construction rose. The US is on track to build a record number of new multifamily units this year — about 500,000 Still, there's a long way to go to make up for the overall shortage in housing, which Freddie Mac recently reported was 3.7 million homes.

There are a slew of other factors at play, as well. The costs of building materials and construction labor are elevated, which makes repairing or renovating older homes much more expensive. And it doesn't help that US homes are older than ever. The median age of owner-occupied homes in the US has risen to 40 from 32 when the housing market collapsed in 2008.

New homes are getting smaller, too. The typical new build for sale in the first quarter of 2024 was 2,140 square feet, down from 2,256 square feet a year prior, according to Census data. Newly built homes peaked in size in 2015 at 2,689 and have been shrinking quite steadily since then. The share of newly constructed single-family homes with four bedrooms fell to 33% last year, the lowest level since 2012, the National Association of Homebuilders found. Meanwhile, the share of new single-family homes with two bedrooms or fewer grew to its highest level in that same period.

Did you choose between a new and an older home when purchasing? Share your story with this reporter at [email protected].

• A Pew Research Center analysis shows the largest occupations for young US workers without degrees.
• Men often work as drivers or in construction, while women work in customer service or nursing roles.
• College enrollment rates have declined in recent years.

Customer service representatives and truck drivers are the most common jobs for young women and men without a four-year degree, respectively.

Men and women between the ages of 25 and 34 who don't have college degrees also work as construction laborers, health aides, cashiers, and chefs, per a Pew Research Center analysis published in July.

There was little overlap in the most common jobs for young men and women without a college degree, but the two groups did share two roles: first-line supervisors of sales workers and retail salespersons.

Roles like these have become particularly prevalent for men, whose college enrollment rates have fallen behind women's in recent years.

Forty-seven percent of US women between the ages of 25 and 34 have a bachelor's degree compared to 37% of men, per a Pew analysis published in November. However, overall college enrollment rates have fallen in recent years: The share of male high school graduates between the ages of 16 and 24 enrolling in college has declined to 58% as of 2023 from 67% in 2018, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Young women's enrollment rate has declined to 65% from 71% over this period.

Many of these young people are seeking jobs that don't require a college degree, and some have benefited from companies dropping degree requirements. The share of US job postings that require at least a college degree has fallen to 17.8% from 20.4% in 2019, according to an Indeed report published earlier this year. To be sure, many employers still prioritize hiring workers with a college diploma.

The Pew report published in July also highlighted the most common job categories for Americans with a four-year college degree. Four occupation categories were among the 10 most common jobs for both men and women: software developers, managers, accountants and auditors, and elementary and middle school teachers.

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• Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is set to reopen on December 7.
• It's been more than five years since a fire devastated parts of the historic building.
• Take a look at new images of the restored cathedral below.

Notre Dame Cathedral, one of Paris' most iconic buildings, is set to reopen its doors on December 7, more than five years on from the devastating fire that ravaged its roof and toppled its spire.

Ahead of the reopening service, which will be presided over by the Archbishop of Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron took a televised walking tour of the cathedral, offering glimpses of the restoration. In a post on X, Macron shared a photo, writing alongside it: "Achieving the impossible together. That's France."

Business Insider has compiled some images of the restored building below.

A fire broke out at Notre Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019.

The blaze destroyed much of the building's roof and brought down its spire. Fortunately, the cathedral's bell towers and main structure survived.

The subsequent restoration project is estimated to have cost more than $700 million.

France's President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, visited ahead of the official reopening.

Macron gave a speech to people who worked on the rebuild.

A reopening service is set to be held on December 7.

A Mass is then planned for December 8.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to attend the reopening ceremony on Saturday.

• Trump plans to deport large numbers of immigrants, likely impacting key industries.
• Construction, agriculture, and hospitality have particularly high shares of immigrant workers.
• The full scope of the planned mass deportations remains unclear.

Present-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations could significantly impact construction, agriculture, and hospitality.

On Monday, Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social that he plans to use the US military and declare a national emergency to assist with mass deportations of immigrants in the US illegally.

Business Insider found which industries could be most impacted by deportations based on their share of immigrant workers per the most recent Census Bureau data as of 2022. The data breaks down 13 major sectors by the number of native-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and non-US citizens working in each. Immigrants in the US illegally are included in Census Bureau estimates.

Construction has the highest share of non-US citizen workers of any industry at 21.5% or 2.45 million out of 11.38 million. Estimates from the left-leaning American Immigration Council are even higher: 40% of construction workers — and those in the US illegally made up 23.3%.

Homebuilding executives and economists previously told BI that deportation plans could worsen the 500,000-worker shortage in the construction labor force, which would drive increases in home prices.

The agriculture industry could also be heavily impacted by mass deportations. About 15.7% of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting workers — or about 359,000 — are not US citizens. A 2021 analysis by the left-leaning Center For American Progress determined that nearly 300,000 workers in the US illegally are in farming and agriculture, two-thirds of whom work in crop production.

About 13.2% of total workers in leisure and hospitality are not US citizens, while this statistic is 11.9% for professional and business services.

Some small businesses are preparing for the potential economic impacts of deportations. Molly Day, vice president of public affairs at the nonpartisan National Small Business Association, said some small business owners in STEM fields expect challenges in hiring new workers if policies surrounding H-1B visas become stricter.

Day told BI, "there is a general concern that the cost of goods could go up if there is a true mass deportation," among small business owners she spoke to. "I also heard from a handful of Hispanic business owners that it's going to impact communities more than just financially."

To be sure, deportation plans are still in flux, and it's unclear how many people would be deported or who would be targeted first. The ACLU filed a lawsuit requesting more information about the plans.

Trump's selections for his administration have indicated deportations could be widespread. Trump tapped Tom Homan, previously acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as his "border czar." He designated Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the travel ban targeting majority-Muslim countries during Trump's first term, as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and US Homeland Security Advisor.

"President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history while simultaneously lowering costs for families," Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.