Land of prosperity: North Dakota

Chance are you’ve heard the stories, of fast food jobs paying $15 an hour and starting salaries for truck drivers around $80,000 a year.

That’s why many people are leaving Brainerd, where unemployment was at 10.9 percent in September, and heading to western North Dakota, where the oil boom is creating thousands of jobs.

In Williston, N.D., the town’s population has nearly doubled from 12,600 to 23,000 people. Unemployment in Williston is less than 1 percent, according to NBC News.

But the jobs aren’t just in the oil fields. There are job openings everywhere in and around Williston as local residents leave to go work in the oil fields.

“It’s crazy,” said Travis Carlson, a 2006 Brainerd High School graduate who since June has been working as a police officer for the Williston Police Department. “You can walk into any business, fill out an application, they’ll tell you that you have an interview in five minutes and by that night you’ll have a job. Last night I heard a guy who owns a semi-truck company is looking for 500 truck drivers right now.”

Full Article:
http://brainerddispatch.com/lifestyle/2011-11-04/area-residents-take-lan...