Summary
North Dakota's unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation, at 3.5%, and the state has added 20,000 jobs over a year, thanks to an oil boom. Nearly everywhere seems to be hiring, which draws in the jobless from across the country seeking work. People such as Samuel Hicks are arriving to find work but no housing. His solution: set up a tent behind his workplace, despite freezing temperatures, wind and rain.
North Dakota, which boasts America’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.5%, is a place that can get the U.S. out of its fiscal quagmire if private capital and less regulation allows natural gas companies to invest there. According to the founder and CEO of Continental Resources—the 14th-largest U.S. oil company—who states:
“We can’t find any unemployed people up there. The state has 18,000 unfilled jobs,” Mr. Hamm insists. “And these are jobs that pay $60,000 to $80,000 a year.”
The economy is expanding so fast that North Dakota has a housing shortage. Thanks to the oil boom—Continental pays more than $50 million in state taxes a year—the state has a budget surplus and is considering ending income and property taxes.
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