North Dakota May Have The Lowest Unemployment Rate In The Universe

From Carpe Diem:

I reported a few weeks ago that North Dakota might have the best labor market in The Americas. Some new data suggest that the state’s labor market just got even a little bit better, if that’s even possible, the Peace Garden state might have the best labor market on the planet!

1. The BLS released employment data today for the nation’s 372 metro areas, and the three metro areas with the lowest jobless rate in October were all in North Dakota: Bismarck (1.7%), Fargo (2.3%), and Grand Forks (2.5%). Although not included in today’s BLS report of cities with population above 50,000, the state of North Dakota reported this week that the jobless rate in Minot (closest city to the Bakken oil fields) matched Bismarck’s rate of 1.7% for October for the lowest metro jobless rate in the country.

2. The state of North Dakota also reported this week that 21 of the state’s 53 counties had jobless rates in October of 2% or less, and the jobless rate in Williams County, in the heart of the Bakken oil fields, dropped to a record, jaw-dropping low of only 0.49%!  That’s a jobless rate below 1/2 of 1%, which also means that 99.51% of the labor force in Williams County is working (45,900 payroll employees in a labor force of 46,158 persons, with only 228 workers being classified as unemployed in October), and is about as close to achieving “full employment” as you can get!

Note: Minot is the closest city to the Bakken with a population greater than 50,000 -- Mark said that, but it might be a bit unclear. The largest city in Williams County is Williston, center of the northern Bakken; the largest city in Stark County is Dickinson, center of the southern Bakken.

Somewhere in between Williston and Dickinson is Watford City which will soon be renamed "ONEOK."

By the way, rumor has it that the 0.49% unemployed in Williams County are those folks in-between jobs, most of them laid off ObamaCare navigators.