North Dakota officially has more jobs than people to fill them

Another sign that the oil boom in North Dakota has been good for business:

Business might not be booming everywhere around the country, but in Minot, N.D. it’s booming so big there aren’t enough people to fill the available jobs at home improvement retailer, Menards. In order to supply enough of a workforce to staff the store near North Dakota’s thriving oil patch, the company is hiring 50 people from its hometown of Eau Claire, Wis. and flying them in every week.  Talk about a tough commute. [...]

While flying workers in and back some 500 miles each way and housing them as well  might sound like a temporary solution, Menard Inc. says it ”is going to be a permanent solution for as far as we can see.”

The mayor hopes some of the airlifted Wisconsinites will decide to stay permanently and make a home in Minot, but Eau Claire residents seem to have another idea about the whole situation, commute and all.

“We would hope just the opposite,” Eau Claire’s economic development director. ”We want them to bring that North Dakota money back to Eau Claire.”