Bozeman News

Gallatin County economy expected to continue growing

Posted: Feb 6, 2013 11:30 AM by Adam Bell
Updated: Feb 6, 2013 11:56 AM

BOZEMAN - Economic forecasters call for Gallatin County to continue to be one of the fastest growing counties in the state.

In the 2013 economic seminar held in Bozeman today, economists broke down the economic growth of the state by county, including different industries. While Montana struggled in the recession several years back, a steady recovery has been keeping the state's growth strong, including the construction industry in Gallatin County.

"Now that those industries have stopped declining, we have seen quite significant growth here in Gallatin County, in fact it's the fastest growth of all the urban counties," says Patrick Barkey with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research with the University of Montana.

"Unemployment rates are coming down pretty significantly here in Gallatin County. And we're even hearing sounds of the problems that we had prior to the recession when growth was so strong of trying to find available workers and these kinds of things are coming to race," professor emeritus Paul Polzin said.

The 38th annual economic seminar will continue its tour across Montana, stopping in Butte tomorrow.