ND adds 61,000 jobs in a decade

Published 12:23 pm Monday, July 18, 2011

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A Job Service analysis shows that North Dakota ended the decade with more than 430,000 workers. That’s up more than 61,000 since the year 2000 and an increase equal to the population of Bismarck, the state’s second-biggest city.

Job Service says about 15,000 jobs remain unfilled in the state that’s enjoying a robust economy led by its booming oil patch and healthy agriculture markets.

Job Service research analyst Michael Ziesch (zish) says the state added more than 17,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010. He says more than two-thirds of those jobs were filled by workers from other states, led by Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota. He says workers came from every state in the nation.