Double your salary in the middle of nowhere, North Dakota

[MNeagle]

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/28/pf/north_dakota_jobs/index.htm?iid=HP_River

[Cebu_4_2]

The strong dollar and dropping oil prices will soon put an end tho this.

[po boy]

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/28/pf/north_dakota_jobs/index.htm?iid=HP_River

Wenko said one-bedroom apartments can run at around $1,500 a month, while two to three bedroom apartments are often around $3,000. Local hotels and motels are at 100% occupancy. Some companies have cashed in on the low housing supply and have built more affordable workforce units, known as "man camps", which are basically clusters of dorm-style trailers that house workers.

It seem as all these leave your home to make big bucks somewhere else all have the same issue of high cost or little housing.

[Cebu_4_2]

Yep started in Florida then AZ and now look at them places.

[Twisted Titan]

Any Dakota GUSer confirm this???

[MNeagle]

Confirm what, the story? I believe it, there have been many articles similiar to this in Minnesota papers. I've also posted about the hiring before on the board.

Also, look at the comments following the story. One of the guys mentioned in the article left his phone # for assistance (as of this my OP time, it may have scrolled to another page by now).

[MAGNES]

Any Dakota GUSer confirm this???

Places like this do exist, they all share very common themes,
housing story I have heard in detail by workers first hand, 10 guys renting
rooms in a regular house paying big rent bills, trailers, vans, sleeping in very
cold climate, there is no place to stay when you first go there. If people are
already hard up living out of a vehicle, they have nothing to lose and everything
to gain to go to a place like this. Oil Sands, Alberta in Canada is like this as well.
If you have skills you can make big money, the main problem is housing.

[LuckyStrike]

Any Dakota GUSer confirm this???

Yes.

[LuckyStrike]

The strong dollar and dropping oil prices will soon put an end tho this.

While it is true that if oil drops below 70 for a sustained period of time many of these projects will end. That is all temporary though if it happens at all.

Also many of these places got burned in the 80's, with the boom and bust, most of them are once bitten twice shy. I'm sure some of them get greedy and will get burned, but I can't think of a better state to be.

As their saying goes "40 below keeps the riff raff out"

[hoarder]

A local guy in his seventies told me he was getting ready to leave for North Dakota to run a D8 Caterpillar dozer for $300 a day. His son is working there as a mechanic and told him about the job.

[Tumbleweed]

My neices husband has been working in the oil fields in north dakota since march driving a water truck. He's been making about $6,000 a month. You better have a work ethic and be tough if you're going to work there. The winters can be feirce. The guys he works for have a shop where they work on their trucks and a few stalls with sleeping rooms, refrigerator and a bar b que grill to cook on.

[Twisted Titan]

I wonder how a RV rental do out there?

[BabushkaLady]

A local guy in his seventies told me he was getting ready to leave for North Dakota to run a D8 Caterpillar dozer for $300 a day. His son is working there as a mechanic and told him about the job.

I also know a guy coming out of retirement to start a dump truck business there. He heard it was going to be really good money for at least 18 months. Maybe longer.

[keehah]

Good paying jobs for the taking by middle class Americans!?! Something needs to be done about this!
::)
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01325/nw-border-drone_1325376cl-3.jpg

[big country]

This is currently happening in north central WV too. There are RV parks springing up on previously vacant lots. People have travel trailers parked next to the roads like its a house. Apartment complexs are full, impossible to get in. 2 year wait lists. House rentals going for $1500+ for 100yr old houses. Hotels running very full.

I have a freind in the Oil/Gas industry here (he runs tools down the wells, installs/pulls plugs, etc) he told me there is enough work for everyone currently in the business to have a job for 100 years. Especially due to the shale and frakking type horizontal wells.

I see work trucks everywhere, mostly out of state plates. I see trucks from Montana, Washington, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc regularly. My friend travels in WV, PA, NY, MI, OH every week doing jobs on different wells. Lots of work and he gets paid REALLY well. He's making 100k+ and he's 28yrs old.

[Twisted Titan]

What part of west virginia

[chad]

i love nd. it's full of lots of animals but very few people. it's duck + goose hunting paradise.

[big country]

north central :)
Clarksburg, Fairmont, Morgantown would be the major cities in that area

Not quite like the OPs story where fast food is paying $15/hr but Oil and Gas is BIG business here right now and seems to be hiring lots.

[Cebu_4_2]

What part of west virginia

Them folks never did like people like me. But If I lived on a roll I could fit right in with them I thinks.