In a recent editorial the Grand Forks Herald tries to gloss over the very real problems with wind power. Namely that it largely wouldn’t exist without taxpayers picking up pretty much all of the costs of production, and that it’s an intermittent power source which (barring some future technological invention or innovation) will always have…
North Dakota’s Post Oil Boom Jobless Claims Seem To Have Peaked
As North Dakota’s oil boom has faded the state has seen a big spike in the number of unemployment filings, as you might expect. Unemployment filings have been the metric to watch for the state’s economy. Because so many of the workers losing their jobs are also leaving the state they haven’t had much impact…
They’re Still Hiring In North Dakota’s Oil Patch
The drilling jobs have dried up, and oil boom-inflated salaries have dried up. Developers who built too many hotels and apartments and homes are feeling the pinch and, in the midst of an election cycle, some political candidates have taken on apocalyptic tones to bolster their bids for public office. But on the whole? The…
North Dakota Employment Grows Slightly Despite Oil Slowdown
With North Dakota’s oil boom fading everyone is watching the state’s economy closely. The slowdown in oil and gas activity has hit the state’s revenues hard, but it can be hard to see too much difference in the state’s labor market. Today North Dakota Job Service issued its most recent jobs report. The state’s seasonally…
North Dakota Has Highest “Good Jobs Rate” For Third Year In A Row
Per Gallup, the good jobs rate “tracks the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full time for an employer for at least 30 hours per week.” North Dakota, for the third straight year, had the highest rate in the nation at 51.5 percent. Minnesota was 4th at 49.5…
North Dakota Still Has More Job Openings Than Unemployed People
According to the November job openings report from North Dakota Job Service (see below), the number of job openings listed in the state is down over 21 percent compared to November last year. “Online job openings totaled 15,901 open and available positions in November 2015,” the report states. “Openings were lower by 4.7 percent (-783)…
How North Dakota’s Unemployment Benefits Doubled Even As The Unemployment Rate Stayed The Same
Earlier today I wrote about a Bureau of Economic Analysis report showing that the amount of unemployment benefits paid out in North Dakota had more than doubled in the last quarter. Yet, even as that’s happening, the state hasn’t seen a spike in the unemployment rate. In fact, according to the September jobs report from…
“A good education and skills for the workforce are not synonymous”
Over at Watchdog today I have an article up about a study linking fracking to high school dropout rates (my previous post here). Two experts I spoke to told me the correlation between fracking and dropout rates wasn’t a good one. “I don’t think it’s just a boom in energy. A manufacturing boom would have…
Oil Price Impact: North Dakota Has About 1,500 More Unemployed People Than A Year Ago
The latest numbers on North Dakota’s job market are out, and the state has seen a slight decline in the labor market from a year ago, but not as much as you might expect given some of the headlines about falling oil prices. I’m guessing most states in the nation would like to have a…
South Dakota Lowers Minimum Wage For Young Workers
Maybe it is time to recognize that raising the minimum wage is bad for young and low-wage workers: PIERRE, S.D. — Gov. Dennis Daugaard has signed a bill to lower the minimum wage for youth in South Dakota to $7.50 per hour, his office announced Friday. This is despite approval last fall by voters of…
