Foreign Workers Help Fill Jobs in ND Oil Patch
WILLISTON, N.D.--"With the nearby oil boom draining this city of many
of its service workers, businesses here are relying on a
cultural-exchange program for foreign college students to keep the local
economy humming.
More than 500 foreign students—from Thailand, Jamaica and about a
dozen other countries—are staffing nearly every hotel, car wash and
fast-food place in town, tending to the troops of roughnecks from the
oilfields.
"Without them, I don't know what we'd do," said Ward Koeser, mayor of
this city of 16,000, citing long lines, slow service and limited hours
at stores and restaurants before the students arrived."
Williston and the surrounding area face a rare problem in today's
economy: more jobs than workers. As of May, the county surrounding Williston had nearly 1,700 unfilled
jobs and 240 people unemployed. The unemployment rate is 0.7%. Since 2006, when new drilling
technology opened up the region's shale reserve to oil production, the
northwest corner of North Dakota has added 30,000 jobs—a 136% increase.
Those jobs were filled by many former service workers in Williston—along
with mostly male workers who flocked to the oil jobs from across the
country."
42 Comments:
EXPLOITATION!
cue southpark audio:
"they took our jobs!"
"deh tek err yeaobs!"
I thought the 13th Amendment took care of this problem.
Make it more palatable for a US citizen, not try to make it more miserable by using Third World slaves. That's what is to be done.
This comment has been removed by the author.
so what is it you think happened here seth? were these students grabbed from their homelands at gunpoint, packed into ships and brought here in chains?
they got offered jobs and said yes.
if that is your definition of slavery, precisely what would you call freedom?
they get paid, they improve their english, they see another country, and then they are breaking what sounded like a sever deadlock in the service industry and enabling the ND economy to function better.
did you want one of those jobs? it would have been your for the asking. did you go apply?
"deh tek err yeaobs!"
Dur ka derbs!
They took your jerb!
Morganovich-
You can't reason with folks who have bought into Orwellian DoubleSpeak:
Don;t you know the main tenets?
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
War is Peace
Ask any of them and they'll agree: a narrow mind is clearer.
jon-
oh, i know. but sometimes it's fascinating to shake the jar a bit and see what else comes out.
it's like a guided tour of bizzaro world.
You can't reason with folks who have bought into Orwellian DoubleSpeak
I can't reason with a "wet behind the ears" clown protected by Perry's Patriot Act.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Are any jobs left to be filled in the Williston area?
Yep, there are about 757 job listings in greater Williston. Hopefully there are positions available that are "palatable for a U.S. citizen".
marmico-
you should have stopped at "I can't reason."
So what is it you think happened here seth?
Someone in North Dakota thought that they were too good to hire US citizens or to do what was required to attract them.
I think you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that ND has jobs.
Well at least you know what a contango roll is, morganovich. But nobody leaves the Bay Area for Utah for the weather. You fly to it.
So are the foreign students being paid the lesser of the minimum federal or North Dakota state wage or is this foreign style American unpaid internships?
seth-
you're going to lose this argument the same way you always do.
"Someone in North Dakota thought that they were too good to hire US citizens or to do what was required to attract them."
first off, what does that have to do with the 13th amendment? your wild illogic here is bordering on tourettes.
second, too good? what kind of babble is that? they could not find workers. what are they supposed to do, drag workers to north dakota? they post jobs. people don't come. what should they do?
offer more money and raise prices on everyone else?
why is it their job to give you one?
that's just entitled thinking and a demand for higher prices to everyone else so you can get paid.
worse, you are a huge hypocrite about it. you don't do it. why should they?
are all your clothes us made?
do you own a us made dvd player? how about a us made stereo and speakers?
why not?
we make all the best AV equipment in the world, hands down. there is not even a question about it.
every component in my theater is US made.
is yours?
they cost more, but there is not a product made in the rest of the world that even comes close on quality.
did you willingly pay more to get the higher quality and be sure you supported america or did you pay less for overseas product?
i'll bet you bought asian.
i'll bet you cannot even name a US made dvd player without using google and never even tried to find one. why not do what it takes to buy US if it's such a great idea? sure, oppo costs several times what sony does, but you seem fine with asking american companies to buy their labor that way. good for the goose, good for the gander seth.
instead, you get to buy offshore because it's cheap but seek to deny that option to others.
that makes you a rank hypocrite seth.
marmico-
"But nobody leaves the Bay Area for Utah for the weather. You fly to it."
i have no idea what that is meant to mean. are you trying to imply i was somehow driven out of sf?
first, the weather is 10 times better in park city than SF, so the first part of your comment seems odd.
but mostly, you move because you are sick of paying california taxes, dealing with sf politics and regulation, because the quality of life here is very high and because you can watch the market open, walk out the door, ski 2 hours of fresh powder, then go back to work. that's a helluva perk, let me tell you.
it's a great place to have your home base and keep pied a terres in sf and nyc.
it's also nice having a serious sized house. 3000 square foot city homes are a bit cramped.
Damn, mordanovich beat me to the South Park episode reference.
Here's the youtube video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik
Damn, mordanovich beat me to the South Park episode reference.
Here's the youtube video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik
I'm not implying it, I'm stating it: Bull shit hedge fund manager can't afford rent in San Francisco.
Ignoring the ranting in the rest of the comment, what makes you think he can't afford San Fran? There are reasons people move other than "they can't afford it."
I left Massachusetts, not because I couldn't afford it, but because New Hampshire offered a better quality of life at a lower price. I am, gross, making less than my Mass friends, but on net I am cleaning up. My apartment is bigger, I keep more of my paycheck (after fed taxes, rent, and bills), my dollar goes a lot further up here. Not to mention the attitude of folks up here is a lot more calm.
I guess my question is: why do you assume that just become one doesn't perform a certain action, he can't afford it. Is it not more likely that he just doesn't want it?
I don't even know where to begin with these comments.
Had a good laugh thinking of the South Park Goobacks taking their jobs....had an even bigger laugh when Seth showed up.
Now I kinda want to kill Morganovich for saying a 3000 sq ft, inner city, SF home was cramped. If you have an extra you'd like to get rid of, I'll let you know where to mail the keys.
This is a range of emotions I don't need on a Friday.
marmico-
lol.
you really are a clown.
can't afford had zero to do with it.
didn't want to pay CA tax rates, sure. CA does not differentiate long term cap gains or allow you to offset at top fed rates by taking losses short term.
i was paying more to CA than the feds.
i still keep an apartment there.
i love you internet bazillionaires.
you are so full of it.
i'd offer to show you my home and dispel your illusions, but, frankly, i have no interest in meeting you much less allowing you in my house.
ps.
if you wonder why mark cuts your comments, perhaps you ought to consider their town and content.
he's not trying to censor your view, just maintain a civil tone around here which, alas, seems to be more than you can handle.
mike-
sorry about that.
you get your perspective all messed up moving to park city. houses here are ridiculously sized and make anyhting in a city look eensy.
my first SF apartment was a 600 ft studio if that makes you feel any better.
my first SF apartment was a 600 ft studio if that makes you feel any better.
My current apartment is a 660 sq ft 1 bedroom. Glad to see I am starting out where you were, Morganovich. If I can be half the man you are, I'll be happy.
and this:
"Not to mention the attitude of folks up here is a lot more calm."
is a wonderful point.
not everyone likes cities or the pretentiousness of marin. more rural life is just more peaceful.
there's a lot to love in the bay area, but lots to want to get away from as well.
being a libertarian in SF and listening to the prevailing local political viewpoints is like nails on a blackboard.
jon-
you're already 10% ahead!
Morganovich,
I live in 3000 sq ft... in HOUSTON! I'm still pissed :)
Oh, well, I only work about 3 hours a day and most of that money is spent getting and keeping me out of the house. I guess I don't have too much to be jealous of.
oh, and marmico, if you think park city is a place you move if you are broke, you've never been here.
not everyone likes cities or the pretentiousness of marin. more rural life is just more peaceful.
True. Although Concord is technically a city, it's more rural than you'd think. The nights are quiet and cool. And the best part: I'm an hour from everything! An hour North, and I'm in the mountains. An hour South and I'm in Mass. An hour East and I'm on the coast and an hour West is Vermont. Talk about paradise. Plus, got the Fisher Cats baseball team 20 minutes south in Manchester, the racetrack 10 minutes away in Loudon, hiking trails, rivers, lakes...I love it here. Let's pass a special tax on everyone who doesn't live in New Hampshire
One thing I do want to say before we get too off track:
It seems to me to be pretty ironic that the ones who say they have the impoverished best interests at heart are the fastest ones to shut down avenues of improvement to them.
"Let's pass a special tax on everyone who doesn't live in New Hampshire"
already been done. it's called a state income tax.
don't you only pay state tax on dividends and interest income?
Jon,
For most of the people I know who hold those views, it really isn't a matter of hypocrisy, it's a matter of pure ignorance from those with their hearts in the right place and their minds stuck in elementary school.
NH is also a short drive to lobsters.
if there is such a thing as a "rocky mountain lobster" i do not wanna know what it is.
don't you only pay state tax on dividends and interest income?
I think so. It's only if you withdraw the money (I believe) and even then, it's only after a certain level. All I know is when I sold some of my investments totaling some $600, I didn't have to pay any tax.
mike-
i go back and forth between your view and jon's.
sometime i think they just do not understand economics, but sometimes it just seems so glaring, especially among politicians, that they cannot possibly just be misunderstanding.
i mean, how can DC look at $29k/student/year for the worst public schools in the country and not realize that they must be doing it wrong?
I think maybe Marmico just really, really likes San Francisco.
sometime i think they just do not understand economics, but sometimes it just seems so glaring, especially among politicians, that they cannot possibly just be misunderstanding.
I agree. I would really like for it to just be ignorance. Then we could just educate better. But these politicians supposedly consult with experts. People like Dr. Perry testify before Congress and plead that they listen. Even in the areas in which there is little disagreement (minimum wage, tariffs), politicians look the other way (or find some hack to support their claims).
Morganovich,
You're completely correct, which is why I said specifically, (but as vaguely as possible) "most I know".
The individuals I was talking about are good people who get their heads stuffed full of nonsense by people holding giant agendas. My hand-wringing friends are the ones who never listened to their parents when they were given the 'if something complicated sounds easy or too good to be true, it probably doesn't exist' advice.
Jon,
If people in the private sector had bosses with seemingly-infinite money and, somehow, were also incredibly easy to fool, they too would be working towards unnecessary expansion, compensation and safety nets. Can you imagine the presentations you would see in the corner offices and board rooms if that method wasn't reserved for the public sector?
In the private sector, you get free reign when you make your boss money (and/or perks)....same in the public sector....only difference is government workers toil to add to their number of bosses.
It's almost hard to blame them.
jon-
concord has lower population density (people per square mile) than park city. (and that's on FT residents. we generally have 200% or so of the local population here during peak tourist times, which, fortuitously, keeps a restaurant scene wildly out of proportion to our town size going)
i don't think anyone accuses concord of being overly urban.
Obama and the Sierra Club sure don't want this to happen all around the country:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=9655
Post a Comment
<< Home