North Dakota Overview

Due to its strong agricultural, energy and government sectors, North Dakota successfully survived the Great Recession and currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. A diverse and growing economy will create good North Dakota job prospects for the state’s nearly 400,000 workers. The energy sector is a key driver of expansion as the state’s gas shale fields are developed and drilled.

North Dakota Job Opportunities

The nation’s third least-populated state, North Dakota is a land of rolling prairies and majestic badlands, filled with wildlife and wildlife refuges. The state’s natural resources generate employment in agriculture and energy. North Dakota is also focused on expanding jobs in manufacturing, technology-based businesses, agriculture and energy.

The most jobs in North Dakota are provided by the trade, transportation and utilities sector followed by government and education/health services. Government is the only sector to constrict employment in 2012, with most other sectors reporting job expansion in 2012.

North Dakota Employment Trends

North Dakota’s unemployment rate peaked at just 4.2 percent in early 2009 and had fallen to 3 percent by May 2012. North Dakota payrolls expanded at a strong pace from early 2010 through mid-2012. North Dakota is one of the few states where online hiring volumes are higher than prerecession levels and have shown consistent job expansion in 2012.

North Dakota jobs are expected to increase 4.5 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, the highest growth rate in the nation and far above the 1.3 percent growth expected in the national job supply, Moody’s Analytics forecasts.