Out-of-Staters Looking For Work

We hear often about the positive job environment we are living in here in North Dakota compared the rest of the country While the unemployment rate lingers near ten percent nationwide it is near four percent here That apparently is sending out-of-staters to North Dakota in search of employment Phil Lowe with Lowe s Floral in Minot is seeing that first hand now His off-season staff of 22 is growing to 75 for the busy spring and summer seasons This week he s been interviewing candidates for those positions and finding some new faces looking for work Phil Lowe - Lowe s Floral and Garden Normally it is all Minot people It will be high school kids college kids retired people who want to work and this year we have had several from out of the area I had three from Kentucky yesterday and one from Ohio I asked the woman from Ohio why she was here and she said there were no jobs in Ohio so she packed up She didn t have family here just packed up and came to Minot How bad is it around the country job-wise The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in January there were 6 2 unemployed people per job opening in the midwest region of the country