Williston's Average Wage Tops $80,000; Beats National Average Of $72,000 -- Dickinson Press -- July 25, 2015

The Dickinson Press is reporting: If looking for work, Williston has never looked better! If looking to establish a business, Williston has never looked better! I was surprised by their story, so upbeat. Look at the numbers, some of which were picked up by The Dickinson Press :

• taxable sales at record levels (see below); Williston's taxable sales and purchases hit $1 billion 4Q14, six months ago
• Williston's average annual wage tops $80,000 compared with a national average of $72,000
• unemployment rate 2nd lowest in the nation
• 1,700 job openings in Williston -- job openings, not unemployment lines
• housing still tight, but opening up; opportunity to move out of man camp into city
• house prices coming down; rents "plunging"
• minimum starting wage at Wal-Mart: $17 (double Dickinson's minimum wage of $7.25 / hour -- not even a living wage)
• traffic no longer a problem with all the new bypasses, new highways
• truck traffic way down now that pipelines are in
• 925 wells need fracking; oil service companies hiring
• for the past 5 years, the area has put in 2,000 wells / year; 10,000 new wells; all need servicing
• more than 1 million bbls of crude oil needs to be moved daily

The Dickinson Press led with a different slant, but finished the article with incredible data points, some of which were noted above.

By the way, there are rumors, that as busy as the Bakken is right now, activity is going to increase at the end of the summer.

If there's any doubt about activity in the Bakken, look at all the job opportunities in this month's edition of the Bakken Magazine. 

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Taxable Sales, First Quarter For The Past Six Years

1Q10:

• Williston: $216K 
• Fargo: $460K

1Q11:

• Williston: $447K
• Fargo: $481K

1Q12:

• Williston: $791K 
• Fargo: $541K

1Q13:

• Williston: $790K 
• Fargo: $543K

1Q14 (city, taxable sales for the quarter, percent change from 1Q10):

• Williston: $779K (261.0%)
• Fargo: $563K (22.4%)

1Q15

• Williston: $703,517,913
• Fargo: $586,272,823
• Dickinson: $279,965,591