I’m really surprised to see North Dakota on the list. They have an oil boom and the lowest unemployment rate in the country. Of course, people have been leaving North Dakota for the last 60 or 70 years. Most of them seem to come to the Twin Cities, so they’re not leaving to get to a better climate.
I think SD rather than ND has the lowest unemployment since Obama killed the oil boom (so I’ve heard). Yes, the great Midwest has been shedding farm workers for a century, due to advancements in ag productivity, BUT I’m still quite surprised to see ND and NE so high up the list...
Are these raw numbers or percentage of population?
I don’t get it either.
I was raised there and there is not only an oil boom but an economic boom generally and literally thousands of workers flocking to the state-—in my home area roughnecks are living in trailers, campers, basements, “man-camps” (the oil companies bring in hundreds of prefab “skid-sleds” to accomodate workers), on and on.
You could hypothesize that Forbes is suggesting the boom will taper off but that isn’t the case unless the world economy tanks. My theory would be, as per usual, that Forbes is stuffed to the gills with s—t.