Hanging Sheet Rock for $90k a Year
Is North Dakota’s energy-driven economic boom creating ripple effects in the Twin Cities?
Specifically, in the Twin Cities labor market?
It would appear that way.
Anecdotally, I’m now hearing of Twin Cities contractors whose labor force is depleted because of the siren call coming from western North Dakota.
Yes, North Dakota.
The climate may be harsh, and there’s nothing to do (except work), but the word at the moment is that semi-skilled laborers can make $90,000 a year hanging sheet rock.
Beats being unemployed and owing $150k in student loans.
Twin Cities Effects
In the short run, a tightening Twin Cities labor market may drive up costs.
However, these days, anything that puts more money, in more people’s pockets, is unabashedly a good thing.
Benefit #2: It’s hard not to see how some of that “North Dakota money” ends up being spent in the Twin Cities — and on Twin Cities housing.
P.S.: Not that I don’t believe energy executives 100% when they say “fracking” is safe environmentally (“Of course it is!”) — but I like being +400 miles southeast of where all the drilling is occurring.
Now, if Minnesotans could just tap North Dakota’s wind energy. See, “Minnesota’s Next-Door Neighbor: The Saudia Arabia of Wind.”
