BBER PUBLICATIONS SEARCH RESULTS

Farming and Ranching: Navigating Another Drought By George Haynes and Kate Fuller
Forest Products: COVID-19 Hangover Impacts Wood Products By Steven Hayes and Todd A. Morgan
Energy Montana's Energy and Minerals Future By Bill Whitsitt
Manufacturing: Shipping and Supply Chain Are Big Concerns By Robert Sonora
Travel, Tourism and Recreation: Staffing Shortages Cause Concern By Jeremy Sage
Health Care: COVID-19 Drives Exodus of Health Care Workers By Robert Sonora
Real Estate and Construction: Boom or Bubble? By Derek Sheehan
Transportation and Logistics: The Roller Coaster Ride Continues By Simona Stan
Technology and Innovation: Pandemic Has Not Slowed Montana's Growing Tech Sector By Christina Quick Henderson

This is the seventh annual report on the high tech industry in the state of Montana. The Montana High Tech Business Alliance (HTBA or the Alliance), formed in 2014, is a member-driven group of high tech businesses and other organizations statewide. The Alliance asked the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) to collect information and insights from its members so that a better assessment of its economic footprint and its prospects for continued growth could be made. This report presents the findings of that research.

Montana's high-tech companies not only survived, but even benefited from the dynamics of a pandemic economy, generating more than $2.9 billion in revenue.

Are concerns about a housing shortage and the inability of working families to find reasonably priced housing in Montana related to COVID-19 migration?

Farming and Ranching - A Year of Volatile Commodity Prices and Near-Record Stimulus Payments Forest Products - Montana Wood Products in the Time of COVID-19 Energy - The COVID-19 Recession Impacts Prices Manufacturing - Continued Growth Is Interrupted by the Pandemic Travel, Tourism and Recreation - Crowds Flock To Montana During COVID Summer Transportation and Logistics - 2020 Was a Year of Disruption Health Care - COVID-19 Alters Health Care Landscape Technology and Innovation - Remote Work, Zoom Towns and a Spotlight on Biotech Real Estate and Construction - The Seller''s Market Continues

Montana?s high-tech companies anticipate moderate growth and a promising future amid COVID-19.

How we work is rapidly changing as we approach the fourth industrial revolution. What can Montanans expect in this new world of work?

This article looks at nine of Montana''s key industries; Farming and Ranching: Price Declines and Exports Make for a Challenging Year, Forest Products: Positive Signs for Montana, Energy: What to Watch for in 2020, Manufacturing: Montana Outpaces Nation as a Whole, Travel, Tourism and Recreation: Nonresident Visitation Stable, Health Care: The Impact of Medicaid Expansion, Transportation and Logistics: A Shortage of Drivers Continues to Cause Concern, Technology and Innovation: Record Revenue, Jobs and Venture Capital Investment, Real Estate and Construction: Housing Markets Lack Inventory.

The latest survey on news media preferences found that Montanans have moved into the mobile device phase of the digital media age.

Montana University System research has a significant impact on the state?s economy, providing income, jobs and tax revenue.

This is the fifth annual report on the high tech industry in the state of Montana. The Montana High Tech Business Alliance (HTBA or the Alliance), formed in 2014, is a member-driven group of high tech businesses and other organizations statewide. The Alliance asked the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) to collect information and insights from its members so that a better assessment of its economic footprint and its prospects for continued growth could be made. This report presents the findings of that research. The fifth iteration of this study adds a new question focused on skills that are in demand among the industry?s new hires.

This is a study of the contributions made to the economy of the state of Montana by the production, employment, spending and tax revenues that come about due to the state''''s largest hard rock metal mining operation: the Sibanye-Stillwater mines and processing facilities in south central Montana. The company''''s high-paying jobs, high value-added production, and significant tax payments add to the state economy in their own right. As the dollars paid to employees, vendors, and governments are in turn respent in the economy, their ultimate significance grows. The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana (BBER) was retained by Sibanye-Stillwater to carry out an analysis how the operations of the mining complex makes the state?s economy larger, more prosperous, and more populous.

Montanans use more energy per capita than consumers in most other states and we spend more per person on energy overall.

Montana?s high-tech companies generated a record $1.7 billion in revenue in 2017 and are growing nine times faster than other sectors of the economy.

This is the fourth annual report on the high tech industry in the state of Montana. The Montana High Tech Business Alliance (HTBA), formed in 2014, is a member-driven group of high tech businesses and other organizations statewide. The Alliance asked the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) to collect information and insights from its members so that a better assessment of its economic footprint and its prospects for continued growth could be made. This report presents the findings of that research. The fourth iteration of this study adds new questions focused on hiring and the high tech labor force.

Bitcoin has been all over the news lately thanks to its meteoric rise last year. So, what is Bitcoin and what are its implications for Montanans?

High-tech and manufacturing companies are projected to grow seven times faster than the overall Montana economy and pay average annual salaries of $57,000 ? more than twice the median Montana wage. The sector shows no signs of slowing down in 2017.

Median earnings for Montana workers over age 24 are $31,800 and places Montana 45th among all states. How can Montana increase wages and develop a robust knowledge economy of skilled workers?

The American energy boom began with improvements in technology and led to the shale-energy revolution. This article attempts to put events into perspective by looking at the Bakken area on the Montana-North Dakota border over the entire boom and bust cycle.

The future is here ? the United States census is moving online to save money and make participation easier. Find out what?s in store, why the census is important and how Montana has changed since the last census in 2010.

In 2015, a University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) survey of Montana High Tech Business Alliance (MHTBA) members captured for the first time data measuring the size and growth potential of Montana?s high tech sector.

Montanans highly value their news and are increasingly using mobile devices to access news over the Internet. Montanans in every age group - including 65 and older- are reading the latest news stories on phones, tablets and computers. In a world with a growing wealth of Internet-based information, some vital questions were recently addressed by first-of-its-kind, Montana-based survey research conducted by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research for the Greater Montana Foundation on important issues facing Montana.The findings of the survey are especially important since they come at a time of revolutionary changes in media technology, in addition to the growth in Internet use worldwide and in Montana.

Strong growth in Montana manufacturing employment occurred despite permanent closures in several manufacturing industries. Employment in the wood and paper products industry decreased by 550 workers between 2009Q2 and 2013Q3. Employment in all the other components of Montana manufacturing increased by about 1,600 workers, or 11.3 percent. In summary, since the start of the recovery Montana manufacturing employment has increased considerably faster than the national rate. This strong performance was in spite of permanent closures in the wood and paper products industries.

Montana is quietly increasing its footprint in high-tech businesses, with growth projected to vastly exceed the average statewide economic growth. Unbeknownst to many, there are a number of high-tech companies scattered across Montana that are creating high paying jobs and challenging the older stereotypes about our economic base.

This report on the high-tech industry in the state of Montana is the first of its kind. The Montana High Tech Business Alliance (HTBA), a newly formed, member-driven group of high-tech businesses and other organizations statewide, asked the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) to collect information and insights from its members so that a better assessment of its economic footprint and its prospects for continued growth could be made. This report presents the findings of that research.

Montana''s high-tech industry will grow 8-10 times the projected statewide growth rate, with average wages at about $50,000 - twice the median earnings per Montana worker, according to a recent study by the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

This is a study of the effects on the Montana economy of the operations of the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization Technology (MBRCT), a program established by the Montana Legislature in 2000 to encourage economic development through investment in Montana-based research projects with a clear path to commercialization. The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana (BBER), using a state-of-the-art policy analysis model and publicly available data on program spending and associated impacts, produced a detailed assessment of the ultimate impact of the operations of the program on employment, income, output, and population in the Montana economy.

Q&A with Montana''s leading economists and industry experts on economic issues facing Montana.

Gallatin County is tied with Flathead County and trails only Bakken-fueled Yellowstone County in terms of overall economic growth since the recession trough in 2009.

The 2013 Montana Economic Development Summit in Butte was one of the biggest and the best. Together, with some of the most influential business leaders of our time and ambassadors from some of Montana''s most important trading partners in the world, we helped sow the seeds for unlimited potential.

Migration had dramatic impacts on Montana during the past two decades, affecting the total population, its distribution between rural and urban areas, and composition by age, including school-age populations.

North Dakota is experiencing an oil boom that has increased total U.S. oil production as well as sheltered the state from the economic impacts of the Great Recession. Montana doesn''t have as much oil development activity as North Dakota, but is experiencing impacts of the development in Western North Dakota.

The University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research recently won the national 2013 Website Award of Excellence for BBER''s redesigned website, http://www.bber.umt.edu.

From 2000 to 2006, Montana's oil production more than doubled. Montana's geologic setting has long provided opportunities for successful exploration and development activities, and new technology has opened up billions of barrels of oil in the Bakken.

Nationwide, consumers are increasingly relying on wireless service as their primary phones, some even eliminating land-line service all together. Montana's land-line telephone service providers are losing active lines at an annual rate of 2 to 7 percent while Montana's largest wireless provider, Verizon, reported wireless phone usage up an average of 32 percent in 2006. However, the appeal for land-lines remains strong among 45-65 year olds and the social norms for cell phones have not fully been developed.

As Montana employers struggle to find workers qualified to meet specific labor demands and replace retiring baby boomers, it becomes clear that investing in a competitive, educated workforce is of critical importance. The surest way to increase workforce supply and to enhance Montana's economy is through the ICE age philosophy, repeating the cycle over and over: Invest, Compete, Educate.

Research shows that the use of technology, such as the Internet, has positive impacts on health outcomes and academic performance; it also provides economic opportunity to young people and increases civic involvement in local communities. However, if a child lives in a low-income, rural household, his or her chances of getting online are diminished. In Montana, 34 percent of the state's children live in households earning $30,000 or less and most of the state is considered rural. With these factors combined, Montana must work hard to overcome a growing digital divide.

Business people, government officials, and community development planners are but a few of Montana's leaders who must use accurate and current information to complete their daily tasks. However, finding and accessing data may be a problem. That is why earlier this summer, economists met at a Bureau seminar to discuss the data available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and how to access it on their interactive Web site.