Many jobs, no workers — Multiple factors working against hiring employees

BUFFALO — The summer season at the Bozeman Trail Steakhouse was hard. Understaffing meant the restaurant’s employees and owner Mandy Tuma had to band together, working overtime in order to maintain service. More employees would have eased the staff’s workload, but Tuma ran into the same challenge facing many other Johnson county employers: Nobody’s looking for work.

“There’s nobody applying to do any jobs,” she said. “You can put an ad in the paper, online, there’s nobody that wants to work in restaurants.”

“It’s a struggle,” Tuma added. “There’s absolutely no acknowledgment (from customers) of the frustration and the hardships that businesses are on.”

Tuma is not alone in her struggle. Employers in Johnson County across industries repeatedly reported struggles finding workers both in, and outside, the area.

Out of the 4,368 total workforce in Johnson County the Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services found that only 105 people were unemployed in September 2026. 

But the same agency projects that Wyoming will add 28,000 jobs in the state between 2024 and 2034.

Employers need to fill their current job openings and will need workers into the foreseeable future, but as it stands, many forces are acting against them.

The lack of numbers

Employers have found that help wanted signs and internet postings haven’t filled positions. Scott Pehringer, supervisor for Johnson County Road and Bridge, said the reason those measures haven’t worked is simple: “There is definitely a workforce shortage.”

Pehringer is right. 

The total Wyoming workforce has been trending downward for years, according to David Bullard, a senior economist for the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, and this issue is having an impact at the local level.

Bullard said that from August 2024 to August 2025, Johnson County’s labor force fell by “a little over 100 people or 3.2%. So even in Johnson County, we’re seeing a decrease in the labor force.”

He attributes this to demographic changes such as the baby boomers retiring, not enough young people and people leaving the state.

While trying to hire, businesses and agencies such as Johnson County Road and Bridge report waiting months for a single person to apply. Some theorize their jobs are seen as undesirable or that the infinite internet job boards and their disconnectedness from the real-world are an issue.

Pehringer said he’s been looking for a skilled mechanic since late August. He has received only one application from a candidate in the two months since the job was posted.

Though Johnson County is growing, certain populations are growing faster than others. Between 2020 and 2025, the county’s population of people ages 65 and over increased by 447 people, a 21.5% increase, according to population data from the Wyoming Department of Administration & Information Economic Analysis Division. On the other hand, there were only 108 more people aged 18 to 44, or a 4.7% increase.

And the workers who are here are aging.

Between 2020 and 2025, the only age group that grew its cumulative percentage of the Johnson County workforce were workers age 65 and older. All other working groups fell in cumulative percentage. 

For example, workers ages 35 to 44 fell from 18.6% of the total workforce in 2020 to 17. 4%, and workers ages 25 to 34 changed from 15.7% to 13.9%.

Few in the county are looking for jobs or are unemployed. 

In September 2026, the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services found Johnson County had a 2.4% unemployment rate, which equates to roughly 100 people. The county’s numbers are lower than the statewide rate of 3% and the national rate of 4.2%.

“Pretty much around the state, unemployment is low, and we’re seeing a decrease in the labor force,” Bullard said.

Limited solutions

The worker shortage in Johnson County places employers in a difficult spot, but practical issues affect the viability of wider hiring searches to locations out of the area.

Affordable housing is one. The lack of affordable housing means that even if a business has an interested potential employee, newcomers can struggle to find or afford a roof over their heads.

“I told him it was going to be tough,” said Pehringer, speaking about a previous hire. “He worked for about six, eight weeks. And then he came back to me, and he said, ‘I’m going to have to move along. I just can’t find affordable housing.’” 

Three Cross Inc. is building a new 25-home single-family development in the city of Buffalo referred to as Cornerstone Estates. The local developer aims to break ground on phase one soon. However, even with this new development, the starting price might be over budget for the employee or cost too much for the employer.

“If we had more affordable housing, then he (an employer) could find somebody from someplace else and draw them into the area so that they could do what they do in this community,” said Lonnie Holmes, general manager of Bloedorns Lumber.

“It’s just, I don’t know that we can afford to pay them enough. To pay the median house price, kind of income,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates the fair market rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Johnson County to be $912 a month in this financial year. And Zillow estimates the average house price at $415,867.

Hiring and training an underqualified individual comes with its own challenges too.

For one, on-site training might not be feasible for some understaffed employers. It requires pulling their already limited staff off their current work to train the new employee.

And electing to educate skilled employees comes with a cost, which Johnson County Road and Bridge found while sending some of its initially underqualified employees to commercial driving school.

“The last two or three that I’ve hired, I’ve actually had to get them off to Sheridan College or to Gillette, a training place over there,” Pehringer said.

It costs $5,500 in tuition alone for a CDL course at Gillette College which requires a 20-hour theory class and three weeks of behind-the-wheel training.

Pehringer worries that once he’s invested the large amount of time and money required to train an employee, the market is so competitive that another potential employer will steal him or her away with an offer of more money.

For example, there are options all over the state for skilled mechanics. The Wyoming Department of Transportation has three mechanic positions open, and Sheridan Country School District 1 is also looking for someone to fix its fleet.

“It’s not the employer’s market,” Holmes said, “It’s the unemployed’s market.”

The impact

The employers sung their employees’ praises, grateful to them for working extra hard to deliver the services customers enjoy. But they all acknowledge the difficulties that extra work brings.

More strain on employees and business owners affects their well-being, as longer hours can increase physical, mental or emotional strain and undermines work-life balance.

“They want their own time. We live in a place where recreation is abounding, right?” Holmes said. “When I’m asking my employees to work more days than normal, then it’s taking away from their time to go enjoy the recreation capabilities that exist here.”

But as the staff of the Bozeman Trail Steakhouse has learned, customers don’t know you’re understaffed; their expectations of service are the same.

With a business to run, hours to uphold and standards to keep, it’s a catch-22: Either have the employees and themselves work more, risking burnout or exits, or risk under-serving their customers.

“Now, hopefully, we don’t do that very often, and we strive extremely hard. I’ve got a number of excellent employees here that do what it takes to take care of our customers,” Holmes said. “(But) it creates a situation where if we don’t service our customers well, they leave the community and buy the product somewhere else. Well, that doesn’t do anything good for Johnson County.”

This story was published on Oct. 29, 2026. 

Ensure These Stories Are Told

Despite the challenges facing independent local journalism, what sustains us — and fills us with deep gratitude — is the loyal support of readers who believe our communities deserve accurate, trusted, and locally rooted news.

It is no exaggeration to say that we are here because of you. Every story we report, every local issue we follow, every public meeting we cover, and every community voice we lift up is made possible by readers who understand the value of an independent newspaper.

Your support does more than fund articles. It helps protect the independence that allows us to report honestly, ask important questions, and keep our community informed without fear or favor.

If you are able, please consider supporting the News Letter Journal by donating to our Unabridged Fund today. Whether your gift helps cover reporting time, printing costs, video, photography, editing, or distribution, every contribution helps keep local journalism strong in Wyoming.

All gifts are deeply appreciated. Your support helps ensure that local stories continue to be told, local decisions continue to be watched, and local voices continue to be heard.

Thank you for standing with independent community journalism.