Tough Times In The Bakken -- Yahoo!Finance -- October 8, 2014

Front page story over at Yahoo!Finance today -- "The Bakken Blues: Struggling in a City With 0.8% Unemployment."

It bills itself as a “boomtown” on the sign driving into the city, and it’s at the epicenter of the U.S. energy revolution. In the city of Williston, North Dakota, the unemployment rate is 0.8% percent, compared to 5.9% nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And average income in this area, Williams County, was $78,390 a year in 2013 and more than $101,190 for those working in the oil and gas industry. (The national average was $46,440, according to the BLS's May 2013 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.)

People end up here from all over, seeking better jobs than existed where they came from. Over the course of four days in the area, we also found that even in a region where RV parks seem as common a sight as oil rigs, golf courses and mansions have sprouted up, too.

We visited one 6,000 square foot house. It’s one of the first in a new development that has barely a neighbor. And homeowner Shayna Vedadi says she has received a few million-dollar offers to buy it.

So when it comes time to catch the bus out of town, why are some people lining up to leave? We met Brandon Broussard and Zachary Daly at the bus stop on their way back to Lafayette, Louisiana. They were leaving for good after their adventures in the North Dakota oil fields didn’t pan out as expected.

“We got paid a 40-hour set salary and we were working anywhere from 80 to 120 hours a week with no overtime,” complains Daly.

“I came up here for work and was promised a lot,” explains Broussard. “Now it’s time to go home.”

The two drill-pipe inspectors arrived here with jobs, but say the opportunity wasn’t what they expected. Plus, they say the cost of living was double that of back home.

I would have enjoyed hearing more about homeowner Shayna Vedadi and her 6,000-square-foot McMansion.