WILLISTON, N.D.- Oil industry jobs are booming, and state employment officials say they’re more stable than the last Bakken surge.
In 2011, at the height of the boom, more jobs were in building and infrastructure.
This year, Cindy Sanford, with Job Service North Dakota, said the jobs are the permanent oil field jobs. She spoke at the Williston-Basin Petroleum conference, which ends Thursday.
Over the past couple of months there have been recent trends of people moving in from out of state, Sanford said., and they’re bringing company.
"Now the kids have moved up here, they have strong permanent jobs and now mom and dad are following them and they are looking at different jobs. So it really has changed the job market as people are looking for different positions," Sanford said.
In April, the most recent data available, North Dakota’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 2.9 percent, slightly better from the previous month, according to the state.
