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Nearly homeless, he saw himself on a dead-end path.
Then he talked to a buddy working here, in a barren corner of North Dakota, where an ugly-sounding word — fracking — has driven oil from the ground and pushed unemployment down to 0.7 percent. That's right: seven-tenths of one percent.
Turco sold his car, hopped in a van and drove west.
Today, he's earning nearly six figures working about 90 hours a week on a drilling rig, one of many Chicago-area transplants who have joined thousands in a remote region experiencing an oil boom while much of the country tries to shake off a recession hangover.
"It is the best thing I ever did; no doubt about it," said Turco, 24, who arrived in Williston in October 2011. "I'm finally living an adult lifestyle, instead of a teenage dropout lifestyle."
If you're working 90 hours/week and bringing in under $100,000/year, the pay in terms of your hourly wage really isn't that amazing. 90 hours/week is like working 2.25 full-time 40 hour/week jobs.
If you're working 90 hours/week and bringing in under $100,000/year, the pay in terms of your hourly wage really isn't that amazing. 90 hours/week is like working 2.25 full-time 40 hour/week jobs.
Who cares? At least he was proactive and is enjoying it.
If you're working 90 hours/week and bringing in under $100,000/year, the pay in terms of your hourly wage really isn't that amazing. 90 hours/week is like working 2.25 full-time 40 hour/week jobs.
And where he once lived, it might not have been possible to find even ONE full time job!
Are developers scrambling to buy up land, and has anyone started building? I imagine the housing stock will be high density buildings right? Or are they going with the large sprawled out mcmansions?
Are developers scrambling to buy up land, and has anyone started building? I imagine the housing stock will be high density buildings right? Or are they going with the large sprawled out mcmansions?
With tens of thousands of people living in campers in this North Dakota winter, even McMansions are welcome. They are building but we are years away from being in check with the housing needs.
I just hope he saves it...most folks will get burnt out pretty quickly working 90 hour weeks...boom and bust is the name of the game in the oil patch..."make hay while the sun shines"...
Put it this way..would you rather be paying for some Saudi Prince to buy another Bugatti Veyron or would you rather help some punk turn his life around and maybe make a life of it?
I just hope he saves it...most folks will get burnt out pretty quickly working 90 hour weeks...boom and bust is the name of the game in the oil patch..."make hay while the sun shines"...
Put it this way..would you rather be paying for some Saudi Prince to buy another Bugatti Veyron or would you rather help some punk turn his life around and maybe make a life of it?
Most of the people I know here are working about 70 or more hours a week but most also get a week off every 2-4 weeks.
With more oil in the Bakken than ALL of Saudi Arabia, this "Boom" is projected to last about 25 years. Just wish we were younger......
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