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 workersnot just in the oilfields, but also in a range of non-oil industries. But so far, the supply of laborfrom within and outside the regionhas responded slowly to demand. In recent years, job openings have soared and unemployment has dropped to very low levelsbelow 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 theyre 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 areas frigid winters andmost importanta 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 doesnt try to hire workers for his Williston, N.D., construction business anymore. Theyre difficult to find, and even harder to keepstarting 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 cant find the employees.
Having the housing for you is critical. You can spend a lot of money to get something to live in and they want big deposits up front.
The wages sound good but people need to factor in that a POS one bedroom may cost them 1500 a month and a lot of money for heat in the winter.
Me to. I am already in MN so it’s not that much of a change.
Just drove through ND last week.
TONS of oil company trucks.
Had to spend the night (kids/wife tired) hotel rooms where north of 100 bucks a night.
I still have my class B CDL. I know I could drive a truck.
As someone else pointed out. Not much tech work (what I do now) up there.
Brother, there is a good many Southrons already there, and double-wides too, and all of ‘em plenty welcome.
But you have to have hook-ups, and some water and power, and some kind of roads or at least trails in and out, you know?
They are hustling in the Bakken to build the man-camps and the proper facilities for trailers and such. But this activity came on so strong and fast...I just drove from Idaho to the Bakken and back and you can see semi-trailers hauling pipe, other trucks hauling campers and trailers and heavy equipment, pickups (with oil patch bumperstickers) hauling young roughnecks and their gear (and sometimes, not often, their gals), and every other manner of drilling necessities and accessories mile after mile after mile.
They’re gettin’ ‘er done, and purty fast too...you keep sendin’ them lads a’ yourn north, hey?
Thanks for that story. No doubt “working girls” are going to be drawn in to separate those fat paychecks from some of the workers.
Most RVs don’t have an option for R38 insulated walls or floors, otherwise they’d probably have a few more takers.
I lived on the East side of the state and one January it didn’t get above 0 degrees during the day for the whole month. When it started to get to about -5 degrees we got conditioned to think that is was actually quite warm out.
Seems like a good place for a young man without obligations. Go up there, stay a year, work lots of overtime, live frugally, leave with a nice nest-egg to start your own construction business or whatever.
Also would be a good place to go if you are a young woman looking for a husband. Competition would be slim.
The Permian Basin (west Texas) has the same employment situation as N. Dakota. But not as cold in the winter but a bunch hotter in the summer. V
Thanks Titus-Maximus.
Whoa there; it’s not so bad here, no riff raff allowed.
God Bless those of you who can.
Sounds like the oil workers themselves could schedule that. A time to drill, a time to drive, a time to pump.
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“What puzzles me is why more people aren't going there.”
Well, you answered you're own question.
But, believe what you like, spring/summer/fall are beautiful times of the year.
Winter, if you know how to make the most of situations, can be just as fulfilling as the others.
North Dakota shares the 5th hottest temperature recorded in the US at 121F.
People think it sucks because they've never taken the time to actually spend some time there.......which is good, only pioneers need apply.
My cousins, who live a few hundred miles due west of there in NE MT, bury their water lines at 6’ to prevent freezing.
All the mines around Arizona are hiring. People cannot pass a pea test and when they do they work for a paycheck or two then disappear
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