Posted on 06/25/2012 1:03:38 PM PDT by Titus-Maximus
The Quick Take: Rapid oil and gas development in the “oil patch” of western North Dakota and northeastern Montana has created huge demand for workers—not just in the oilfields, but also in a range of non-oil industries. But so far, the supply of labor—from within and outside the region—has responded slowly to demand. In recent years, job openings have soared and unemployment has dropped to very low levels—below 3 percent in a number of counties.
The Bakken oil play is drawing job seekers from other Ninth District states and the rest of the country, but they’re not coming in sufficient numbers to keep up with continued job growth. There are several obstacles to the flow of labor into the oil patch, among them low unemployment in eastern North Dakota, the area’s frigid winters and—most important—a scarcity of housing.
The region faces an awkward period of adjustment, but labor conditions are likely to loosen within a few years as rising wages and improved living conditions for migrants increase the workforce.
Rick Tofte doesn’t try to hire workers for his Williston, N.D., construction business anymore. They’re difficult to find, and even harder to keep—starting wages at oilfield service firms in the area far exceed what he can pay for the services of carpenters, roofers and electricians. The 30-year-old firm has a full slate of building projects, including upscale housing and facilities for expanding oilfield companies. Yet Tofte Brothers Construction employs only six people; as the oil boom has taken hold in the region, Tofte and his brother Terry have increasingly relied on subcontractors to do most of their work
“We have changed our structure in how we [operate],” Rick Tofte said. “We used to do it all ourselves; now we sub[contract] out 75 percent of it, just because we can’t find the employees.”
Big difference. Last I heard, working in Antarctica doesn’t pay squat. The lowest pay I ever heard of.
Yeah, you and everyone on the government dole. Why pick up and move anywhere—let alone North Freaking Dakota!—for a few years to get a freaking JOB and EARN a freaking living when the government will pay the jobless to stay home and do nothing?
That’s why God made Styrofoam and Great Stuff, just to solve that short-term problem. It doesn’t have to be pretty, or permanent, you just have to get through the winter, and do it all over again before next winter.
We had a visitor in our office a few weeks ago from Minot. She said McDonald’s is paying $25/hour for counter workers.
I’ve been around the oilfield businesses all of my life and I can tell you that finding anyone who can pass the drug “piss test” or who has a clean criminal record is almost impossible to find.
The other problem is that our new generation does not want to perform manual labor.............PERIOD!
It is going to take more than insulation, it will take a heat source in that space.
Frost depth is typically 4 feet or more.
A lot of the unemployed people will not go there for a job because it can be dirty and hard work. Most people want cushy high paying jobs.
I know about deep frost, I lived in Wisconsin for some thirty years. A closed space needs only a 100-watt incandescent bulb to keep the pipes thawed, and there is something called a heat tape that does a most excellent job of keeping a length of pipe thawed in those few critical hours in the coldest of arctic blasts when there is nothing between you and the North Pole except a barbed wire fence. Electric “milk house” heaters are also pretty effective in still air. Heat rises in a closed space, cold does not. The secret is to prevent any heat loss by air exchange.
No housing. Workers are living dormitory style with sometimes 6 to 8 men per bedroom. Living out of your truck won’t cut it when it is cold.
No women. Maybe 1 single woman for 100 men, and she ain’t pretty.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
The same dirty and hard work is required for oil work in Texas Eagle Ford and Permian Basin. Both are booming with work.
While labor rates are up and short on people, they are nothing like North Dakota is seeing.
I still say the cold. We have far more drilling of the same type going on in Texas without the extreme conditions in North Dakota.
The Oil Boom has turned Fort MacMurray, Alberta, Canada into a boom town of over 60,000 within just a few years, and it’s around 100 miles from the Arctic Circle.
North Dakota is a summer resort by comparison.
I'm sure there are many of them looking at the current oil boom as something which will eventually pass and, in the meantime, would like to drag it on as long as possible to employ their kids and grandkids rather than outsiders.
Sure, cold is a factor.
But would cold keep you from feeding your family, if you had few other options?
Laziness is a factor too, as Koblenz and newgeezer point out. Laziness will keep some men (and women) from feeding their families.
But you also have to consider the Bakken’s geographic isolation and the region’s ruralness. Williston, in the heart of the boom, had a population of what, about 12,000 prior to this boom, and was the fifth largest city in the state?
Billings, Montana, 300 miles to the west, has just over 100,000 people; Fargo, 400 to the east, is a bit larger, and beyond that you have to go to Minneapolis or Spokane to top 200,000.
The North Dakota countryside has emptied out over the years as the farms got bigger and the young hit the road. South Dakota is the same, as are the Canadian provinces to the north.
There just weren’t many people around when the boom hit, and there isn’t any housing for the ones who want to come now.
Yet the Alaska gold rush brought its share of boom towns, in a place harsher than ND. Is something happening there to dampen that down? Capitalism eventually wins out if not hobbled sufficiently badly.
Well really all they need to do is provide the land and say welcome Southrons, just bring your double wide trailers with.
There have been times the temperature here in ND has been higher than in TX - in the middle of winter! So there!
Why people wont go to North Dakota
Its cold there
No ‘hood and ‘homies’ to hang out with
Expect you to work....
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