Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
After checking out current unemployment rates in several different states, I noticed that ND has a rate between 2.7% and 3.2%. Considering the economic conditions in the US, those are amazing numbers.
You might do a search of the forum, that topic has been discussed in detail, numerous times.
Also, a lot of other threads talk about the jobs going now along with the problem of not enough housing for the workers they have. Right now there are people living in their cars in Williston.
The link below is from North Dakota Job Service. It shows the various counties in the state and their unemployment numbers. The west is probably the lowest...as you move across towards the east,..the unemployment rises a bit in some areas...but definately not by much. I'm guessing the lower numbers and the higher numbers (even though not really high)....average out to pretty low unemployment numbers overall.
There is a lot of farming in North Dakota, that is somewhat recession proof since people still need to eat although I'm pretty sure agriculture also takes hits.
I've heard that the Bank of North Dakota also helps but I don't know anything about that.
2. Cold weather, long harsh cold winters...a turn off to many, so they don't go there...thus keeps population low..
3.North Dakota is not a destination place, for those looking for a better life, like say Los Angelos is, or New York or Miami...there's no Hollywood or film industry in ND where people leave home with $1.00 in pocket and a year later are on Oprah's show telling their story...
4. A lot of unemployment comes from big industries that move in, and then move out, thus leaving people unemployed...My guess is that doesn't occur in ND...growth is slow and steady...
5. If your unemployed or already down, ND is not exactly the place you think of going for more opportunity, there-by cutting down on an excess population.
6. Like where I'm from...a wide open ag state...you really don't move there, unless you have a purpose...that purpose being school (college)(University)(military)...there's just not a whole lot of loitering in cold ag states...
To me, those are just some of the possible obvious reasons...
But again I'd like to emphasize big industry...since there's never really been any in ND, none closed and sent people packing...
Keep in mind also that ND has a lower population than a lot of states. You can't really compare them to other states that have large populations. Other than that, I think it's because it's so cold here you can't really live on the streets (most of the time) and it's not cheap to live here and I know several people have 2 or 3 jobs just to get by.
Also, the oilfields have more jobs available than people if you are qualified to work in the oil fields or even want to. So...farming and oil probably pay the most, everything else is like $9/hr which isn't really enough to sustain someone in expensive towns.
But that's just my opinion. I would definitely take any job I could get than live in my car in -60 windchill temps.
My husband and I are relocating to North Dakota for work after 10 months of being unemployed on our state (Washington). When I looked up population density I was surprised to see that the entire state of North Dakota has the population of Seattle, WA. The average was given as one person per 8 miles, lol. This is definitely going to skew the unemployment rate numbers somewhat.
Also keep in mind that North Dakota doesn't have any really large cities with large amounts of urban poor; it's a very rural state. Also, if you are college educated and unemployed it's quite likely that you would leave North Dakota for better opportunities in a large city.
For some reason low wages (other than in the oil patch) accompany the low unemployment even though the cost of living is really not that low. It would be interesting to know what percentage of North Dakotans are college educated and either underpaid and/or underemployed (at retail and blue collar jobs).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
