From the oil patch to the café to the hospital, plains employers share a single chronic complaint: not enough workers to fill the jobs a growing economy keeps creating.
Walk the main street of nearly any plains town and the signs tell the same story: help wanted, now hiring, apply within. In a thinly settled state with a growing economy, the chronic shortage is not of work but of workers, and it shadows every boom the plains enjoy. From the oil patch to the hospital to the corner café, employers compete fiercely for every available hand.
Help Wanted, Everywhere
The causes are structural and stubborn: a small population, a stream of young people leaving for the cities, and an economy that keeps creating jobs faster than the labor force can grow. Employers respond with higher wages, signing bonuses, housing help and aggressive recruitment from far beyond the plains, but the gap persists.
From the almanac's reckoning:
- Plains employers face a chronic shortage of workers, not of jobs.
- A small population and out-migration of youth drive the gap.
- Employers respond with higher wages, bonuses and housing help.
It is, in a sense, the happy problem of a prosperous place, but it constrains every ambition the region holds. The almanac counts the labor shortage among the defining challenges of the plains economy — a boom forever hunting for the hands to build it.
Elsewhere in the Almanac
The Family Business That Anchors the Small Town
The hardware store, the implement dealer, the funeral home — family businesses handed down through generations remain the backbone of commerce in the plains town.
Tourism Finds Its Footing on the Northern Plains
From the badlands to the lakes to the heritage sites, a growing tourism trade brings visitors and their dollars to a region long overlooked by the traveler.
The Housing Squeeze in the Growing Cities
As Fargo, Bismarck and the oil towns grow, the cost and scarcity of housing have become a pressing worry, complicating every employer's search for workers.