When something is out of sight, it’s out of mind, right? That’s true to a point, but as North Dakotans we sometimes get a glimpse of what it’s like elsewhere and the reality is, we don’t have it so bad.
As we all know, North Dakota has been growing for several years. Driven by oil, the western third of the state has really expanded, bringing with it lots of spinoff opportunities that most places don’t have.
As an example, the city of Williston has nearly doubled it’s population in the past 20 years. It doesn’t seem so long ago that a group of people was working on ways to urge people to move to Williston, Watford City, Crosby, Ray and Tioga. Time simply changed all that.
And when a community like that grows, it brings with it lots of opportunities in jobs, housing, health care and other amenities not found previously in that community. The hospital in Williston has been advertising for medical professionals, nurses and CNAs. The school system has grown so much… if you think there’s a teacher shortage in North Dakota in general, go to a Williston School Board meeting sometime and then we’ll talk.
The last time I checked on North Dakota Job Service, Williston had several hundred jobs available along with hundreds of housing opportunities. Jobs you can basically pick from in a city of 30,000? Granted, not all of them are going to pay $100,000 a year, but in order to keep up with the oil industry, everyone else has to pay better wages or they simply won’t get workers.
We also know that money is a motivator and where else do you know where Walmart can pay up to $32 an hour? With that kind of wage, yes, a lot of people are going to want to work at Walmart. But that’s the reality, or Walmart wouldn’t have anyone to keep the store open.
The opposite can be true in other places. The economy can be so depressed, hardly anything moves and I’ll use the example of eastern Indiana and the community of Connersville.
This is a community about the size of Jamestown that sits 14 miles from the Ohio state line and is also about 70 miles from Indianapolis and 100 miles from Cincinnati. It’s unfortunate, but about the only jobs you will find in Connersville are health care positions. Little else exists right now.
Unfortunately, alongside that is a cost of living that is parallel to just about every place else and taxes in Indiana are quite high, especially for young families wanting to buy a house and have a decent car to drive. Unemployment is also high and with high unemployment comes an increase in crime.
Suffice to say, if you want to make a livable wage there, you would have to live and work in Indianapolis or Cincinnati or you will most likely continue to struggle financially.
I think the opposite is true here and more specifically in Beulah. In fact, we’ve seen numerous surveys that indicate Beulah, Hazen and Mercer County have among the best wages in North Dakota that translates into a much better quality of life.
I’m using the examples of Beulah and Connersville not only because Beulah has half the population and more than twice the jobs, but because I have a niece who lives in Beulah and a granddaughter who lives in Connersville.
Granted, my niece is a little older than my granddaughter, but the way they live is completely different and it’s all based on economics. My niece recently moved into a new house, had a baby and she doesn’t have to work because her husband works at one of the power plants earning more in his early 30s than I did as a full-time Army first sergeant.
My granddaughter struggles every day to pay the bills. For her, finding a job is useless because if she did go to work, more than half her salary would be eaten up in daycare costs. Her boyfriend has a job that pays a paltry salary even though he is way overqualified for what he is doing.
Numerous other examples like this can be found comparing communities, even economically depressed ones, to those in other states. North Dakota is a place of opportunity right now and that’s why young people continue to move here despite the “cold, harsh winters.”
If my granddaughter was here, not only would she not worry about daycare, but she would most likely have a choice of jobs to pick, a choice of a living wage and a choice of a better quality of life. And most employers are flexible enough that she could work and go to college to work for a better life.