Economist highlights 'historic' decline in employment in Yellowstone County
Economists discuss trends during pandemic in Yellowstone County
and last updated 2021-02-02 20:03:18-05
In Yellowstone County, there was a historic decline in employment since the COVID-19 pandemic started last year.
On Tuesday morning, during day two of the University of Montana's economic outlook seminar, economist Pat Barkey said that in the first half of 2020 Yellowstone County lost jobs. In the second half of the year, the rebound was not enough to offset the effects from the beginning of the year.
"That netted out to be about a 3 percent decline in employment across the county, which was historic. But it is going to turn into something which is almost equally historic coming out as we expect to see some version of normality kicking in sometime around summer. We expect to see many of these jobs, which have been lost because of social distancing and other economic consequences of the pandemic...reverse themselves and then see some makeup growth this year," said Barkey.