Southwest Montana News

As the coronavirus threat caused many restaurants and bars to shut down dine-in service this week, the business community across Montana is bracing for the economic and social impact and looking for ways to help.

“We’re understanding of the need to do this to get ahead of the threat, but it’s creating a lot of uncertainty in the business community," Todd O’Hair, president/CEO of the Montana Chamber of Commerce, told the Southwest Montana News.

“The impact for business owners and employees is just devastating, I’m hearing lots of stories about employers going to great lengths to keep employees on as long as they possibly can; we’re in a workforce shortage in this state, so when you have good employees, you don’t want to let them go,” O’Hair said.

Todd O'Hair, president/CEO of the Montana Chamber of Commerce | https://www.montanachamber.com

The good news is, leaders at the local and national level, including Montana’s congressional delegation, have been in communication to determine the best response for the near and long terms.

“It’s too early to do a numbers impact, but we know the emergency is having a serious impact on the employees and the overall Montana economy, and they’ve taken immediate steps. They are extremely interested in hearing about what the federal government can do to provide immediate and longer term assistance with this,” O’Hair said.

As the emergency continues to evolve, businesses have also found ways to help employees with child care, O’Hair said, and noted that on Tuesday the state provided some waivers and adjustments to unemployment compensation that will allow people immediate access instead of having to wait a week.

Still, the assistance cannot replace the significant financial losses.

“Particularly for restaurants, catering and bars, even if you lifted restrictions tomorrow, there have already been event cancellations that will cause these businesses to have to scale back dramatically in the payroll count in order to survive this downturn,” O’Hair said. “We are in for a real rough run here. Business as usual has been stalled, and it’s going to be stalled for a number of months.”

Meanwhile, there is a hunger for information among the business community.

“We’re going to get through this, but there’s a need for information so businesses can survive what’s here and address the longer-term impact of what we’re witnessing,” O’Hair said.