Another Story on Economy in the Dakotas

Link here. (PowerLine site which is also linked at the sidebar at the right. A very nice site.)

Go West, that is, if you live East of the Dakotas. Quite a few years ago, I read that North Dakota had more millionaires per capita than any other state, the consequence of agriculture and oil. And that was before the Bakken Shale development, currently the largest construction project in the United States.

Daniel Gross (via InstaPundit) cites chapter and verse on North Dakota’s boom: the unemployment rate is 3.2%; one quarter of all the oil drilling rigs in the United States are operating in North Dakota; in Williston, McDonald’s restaurants pay entry level workers $12.50 to $15 per hour; North Dakota’s economy has grown 7.1% in the past year; and the state can’t find enough workers to man the jobs it is creating.

It isn’t just oil, either. Agriculture is booming in North Dakota as it is throughout the Midwest. This is partly due to our government’s decision that it would be a good idea to burn our biggest cash crop, as a result of which Iowa is now a net importer of corn. But even without boneheaded federal intervention, agriculture would be doing very well.

I am always impressed how well South Dakota is also doing, and the state has "no" oil -- that may change, but South Dakota's economy weathered the recession much better than most for the reasons that are cited in the linked story. 

North Dakota has gotten most of the publicity, but South Dakota also enjoys enviable prosperity. Its unemployment rate was 4.8% in May, not as low as North Dakota’s but a heck of a lot better than the national rate of 9.1%. South Dakota doesn’t have any oil, but its business-friendly environment and superior work force attract jobs of all kinds. I spent last weekend in Sioux Falls, a booming city of over 150,000.

Go to the link for a great photo and a great story.