North Dakota needs more workers

  • Star Tribune
  • Thursday, April 17, 2014 3:14pm
  • Business

North Dakota’s oil boom has lured thousands of new workers to the state, but it still needs more.

A lot more.

The state is on the verge of a new national advertising campaign that it’s calling “Find the Good Life in North Dakota.” The hope is to lure enough warm bodies — and skilled workers — to fill 25,000 jobs now vacant, and another 76,000 that it expects to see by the end of the decade.

These aren’t just rough blue-collar jobs in the western oil fields, where workers can pull in a six-figure salary but still end up sleeping in their cars because there isn’t enough housing to go around.

Flush with cash, North Dakota is in the middle of a second boom — one being driven by an onslaught of new homes, roads, schools, hospitals and businesses statewide. Now it needs to find enough qualified workers to build, and fill, those buildings.

“We have about 15 openings right now,” said Jim Traynor, director of market development at Intelligent InSites, a Fargo, N.D.-based software company. The company has grown so fast it’s moving to larger quarters for its staff of 80 and counting.

But how hard is it to sell high-tech, creative types on a move to Fargo?

“It’s harder to first get (prospective employees) here to experience it,” said Traynor, a native North Dakotan. The sales job gets easier, he said, once job candidates see the city and meet their future neighbors.

“The Coen brothers made (Fargo) out to be this off-color, strange place,” he said. “Fargo is fun; it’s safe. It’s warm on the inside.”

The “Find the Good Life” campaign hopes to get that message out nationwide, with a particular eye toward the workforce in neighboring Minnesota. About half the workers who have migrated into North Dakota since 2010 have come from Minnesota — more than 15,000 in 2012 alone.

The ad campaign is being funded by a mix of public and corporate dollars. The Hess Corp., one of the energy companies fracking the Bakken shale formation, chipped in $400,000. The North Dakota Department of Commerce matched the contribution, and other businesses are contributing as well.

These aren’t the hectic first years of the oil rush, when workers crowded, then overcrowded, the tiny communities around the western oil fields. Now, more than a third of the population growth is in eastern North Dakota — far from the oil, but close to Minnesota. The Census Bureau ranked Fargo as the fourth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country this year.

Despite stories about workers living out of their cars, or enduring horrific cross-state commutes, North Dakota — with a state population roughly comparable to Minneapolis and St. Paul combined — has plenty of room for more people.

“I think you could fit all the population of North Dakota into Minnesota’s largest county — twice,” said Kevin Iverson, manager of the census office at the North Dakota Department of Commerce. “In terms of space, I think we’re doing OK.”

When the Good Life campaign was announced in March, state development officials issued a memo noting that the ads would “target job seekers in states with an available workforce with the skills sets we need in North Dakota, and with high under- and unemployment. The campaign will primarily target: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.