You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Work’ category.
The Grand Forks Herald has been running a cool series of articles highlighting success stories out of North Dakota’s oil patch. Here’s the latest installment. We hope you enjoy it!
Faces of the Boom Series – by Amy Dalrymple, Grand Forks Herald
Interested in making a difference in North Dakota’s future? 2020 & Beyond, the state’s 20-year visioning process, has just begun to hold community meetings across the state. These meetings are an opportunity for you to get involved and take part in shaping North Dakota’s future.
The initiative hopes to build on North Dakota’s growth and expand visions for economic development statewide, focusing on the areas of people, places and opportunities.
Meetings will be held in Wahpeton (March 13), Jamestown and Fargo (March 14), Williston (March 20), Minot (March 21), Devils Lake (March 27), and Grand Forks (March 27).
Visit www.ND2020andBeyond.com to find location information and to learn more about this exciting initiative.
Christmas at the North Dakota State Capitol.
It’s been an amazing December and now we are just a few short hours from the holidays. North Dakota Ambassadors have many things that remind them of the holidays. There are sights, sounds, smells and memories that come rushing back for all of us when we think of our North Dakota Christmases.
With that in mind, we’re curious if you can help us finish an important sentence this year. Please leave your memories and Christmas stories in the comments below for all of us to enjoy and remember. Oh, and most importantly, holiday blessings and joys to each of you! Thanks for making North Dakota a great place to live, play and work!
You know it’s a North Dakota Christmas when … ____________________________.
If you haven’t noticed, North Dakota has been busy lately. It seems like we’ve found ourselves on a number of newsy places for all the right reasons. In fact, we’ve been so busy as Ambassadors, we haven’t been good bloggers lately either. We’re hoping to make up for that soon, but in the meantime, you probably want to check out these cool North Dakota stories from our stint on the national news scene.
Now Hiring: North Dakota Oil Boom Creates Thousands of Jobs
Those hurt hard by the ailing economy are flocking to Williston, N.D., where an oil boom has turned a sleepy prairie town into a place producing thousands of jobs.
Now Hiring: North Dakota Oil Boom Creates Thousands of Jobs – NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams
Boomtown: High-Paying Jobs, No Experience Required
NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams will be running a three-part series focused on Williston, ND and the oil boom.
Boomtown: High-Paying Jobs, No Experience Required – NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams
How North Dakota Outpaced the U.S. Economy
North Dakota wins the bragging rights for growing the most last year, up 7.1 percent from in 2009. Just a stone’s throw away, Wyoming actually slumped, leading the nation’s slowest states.
How North Dakota Outpaced the U.S. Economy – KTVQ.com Billings
Bismarck, ND: Lowest Unemployment Rate
This “boomtown” boasts the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. lies in the Great Plains.
Bismarck, North Dakota was recently featured by ABC Headline News as an American Boomtown. It talked about how Bismarck, and North Dakota in general has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. With 16,000 open positions, North Dakota is looking for workers in everything from dishwashing to bio-techno-engineering-something, something. In other words, there’s work that appeals to just about any skill set.
Sometimes just knowing where to look is the key piece to the puzzle. There’s only a few short days left of North Dakota’s online job fair – www.WebFairND.com. Until October 31, www.WebFairND.com is featuring job openings across North Dakota. (Spooky, we know … Halloween reference.) Don’t miss your chance to connect, browse and seek out new opportunities in our fine state. Plus, you can always be looking online, anytime by visiting www.FindJobsND.com and connect with North Dakota’s Job Service.
Take the time to look and you just might find a job that’s right for you!
photo credit: Katie Moore Atkinson
The flooding in North Dakota is making national headlines as Minot’s Souris River (also known as the Mouse River) crested this weekend at 1561.7 feet, beating the 1881 record of 1558.0 feet. Minot, Bismarck-Mandan and many of their surrounding areas continue to be heavily impacted by the excess water that needs to leave the state.
The Ambassador spirit of the North Dakota people continues as neighbor is helping neighbor, and more importantly, complete strangers are lending a hand to help out their fellow human beings. No questions, no payments, but rather simple thank yous and doing what is right is prevailing in most instances.
There’s been a lot of Ambassador questions about what is really happening and how can they help. Earlier this month we posted our first series of photo links to help you better understand the situation with our post North Dakota Flooding Photo Links. This is a follow-up to that post to provide you some more up-to-date information and imagery from North Dakota. If you have more resources, please feel free to add them I the comments section. As we learn of more we’ll also attempt to update.
PHOTO LINKS
- KX News Minot – Facebook Page photo albums featuring many photos from the flooding in Minot and surrounding areas:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.210029399040263.51264.113338562042681#!/media/albums/?id=113338562042681
- KX News Minot – Facebook Live Coverage:
http://www.facebook.com/kxnewsminot?sk=app_190322544333196
- KX News Minot – Website offering live UStream coverage from Minot:
http://www.kxnet.com/?setCity=min
- KX News Minot – YouTube photo montage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBoclslZ_bg
- New York Times Coverage of the Minot flooding:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/us/27airwaves.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=minot&st=cse
A corresponding slideshow from the story: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/06/27/us/20110627_FLOOD-10.html - North Dakota National Guard Flickr photos – hosts pictures from flooding across the state:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ndguard/collections/72157626806898434/
- BismarckMandan YouTube Channel featuring flood footage videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bismarckman#p/u
- KFGO’s Mike McFeely’s ariel tour of Minot on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.241463309213504.78119.100000495107353
- ABC News Coverage:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/minot-struggles-record-breaking-floods-13932097
RESOURCES/ASSISTANCE LINKS
- Presidential Disaster Declaration – Individual assistance has been approved for Burleigh and Ward counties. Residents can apply for FEMA individual assistance online:
http://www.disasterassistance.gov/
- Disaster Recovery Center Locations: The Bismarck Disaster Recovery Center will open, June 27 from 1pm to 7pm and be open daily from 7am to 7pm starting tomorrow. Locations: Bismarck – Bank of North Dakota – 1200 Memorial Highway; Minot – Minot City Auditorium, 420 3rd. Ave. SW and Minot State University-MSU Student Center, 500 University Ave. W.
- ND Flood Info – State flood related website offering information about steps to take before, during and after a flood as well as resources available to individuals and businesses: http://www.ndfloodinfo.com
- Donate – Give to the North Dakota Flood Relief Fund through the North Dakota Community Foundation:
http://www.ndcf.net/Flood/Index.asp
- Donate – Give to the American Red Cross Mid-Dakota Chapter:
http://minotredcross.org/
- Donate – Money for Minot efforts in the Fargo Area:
http://www.moneyforminot.com/
A video this morning released by NPR – National Public Radio has me thinking about the term “Life’s a Dance.” The video showcases a pendulum. Sounds boring right? But, magically it isn’t.
The pendulum, which was built by team at Harvard, features 15 individual balls suspended at different lengths, each one swinging at just a little different speed. So if one swings at 54, it’s neighbor that’s shorter is at 53, 52 … and so on. Once set into motion in a straight light, the balls begin to change speed and create amazing patterns, squiggles, swirls, snakes and dance partners.
But here’s our favorite part. The secret choreographers of the dance are simply: Time and Motion. The Harvard design team has built the device so the pattern repeats every 60 seconds. Precisely. You check it out yourself by looking at the 27-second mark when the balls start moving and then at 1:27, exactly a minute later, all the balls are right back where they started. And then the dance repeats once again.
As we go about our day, we too are affected by the choreography of time and motion. It may not be that we look as graceful as our pendulum does, but I simply point out that we truly are living life’s dance. Some of us are simply lucky enough to be enjoying that dance in North Dakota.
Enjoy your “dance” today, and if you aren’t lucky enough to be soft-shoeing in North Dakota, check out www.WebFairND.com to see great job opportunities in state throughout May.
There’s plenty of North Dakotans in the Twin Cities and we’re looking for a few who want to come home to ND! North Dakota businesses and economic developers are heading to Minnesota to participate in an upcoming Experience North Dakota event. This event, to be held May 13 from 10 am to 2 pm at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, will showcase thousands of current job opportunities available in North Dakota in an effort to lure former North Dakotans and other job seekers to the state.
Over 20 North Dakota employers will be represented on the recruiting mission. Those interested in attending can find more information and RSVP at www.ExperienceND.com/jobs.
“This event will give job seekers and business leaders from the Twin Cities a chance to connect with the state of North Dakota,” Governor Jack Dalrymple said. “They will learn about our pro-business climate, our strong economy and how they can be a part of our future.”
Commerce is sending thousands of invitations to former North Dakotans, friends of the state, and potential job seekers in targeted high-demand occupations living in the Minneapolis area.
“The goal of these events is to help businesses from the state attract new talent to fill their growing needs for labor,” Paul Govig, acting commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce, said. “Job seekers will get to know North Dakota employers and community leaders, all while getting a taste for what the state can offer.”
Web Fair ND
Check out North Dakota jobs online at WebFairND.com the entire month of May.
For those who aren’t in the Minneapolis area, but still are wanting to return home to North Dakota, be sure to check out our online job fair at www.WebFairND.com. Web Fair is running the month entire month of May and featuring a variety of jobs and employers from across the state. Your next great job may just be waiting in North Dakota.
What can we say, North Dakota loves accolades! The state has recently been recognized for having one of the best job markets in 2010, being number 3 in the nation for “well being,” and for having one of the lowest underemployment rates in the country by Gallup.
Here’s a little insight into the latest Gallup rankings.
Best Job Market
North Dakota has a Job Creation Index of 29 which puts us on top for Gallup’s best job market survey. More than half of the 10 best job markets in 2010 were in energy- and commodity-producing states. Having a significant presence of natural resource-based industries has been a distinct job-creation advantage for North Dakota.
*To learn more about best job markets in 2010 go to
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146402/North-Dakota-Washington-Best-Job-Markets-2010.aspx
“Well-Being”
North Dakota is among the 10 states with the highest overall well-being scores, sitting happily at number three with a score of 68.4 on the Well-Being Index scale. The state-level data is based on daily surveys conducted from January through December 2010. The Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index is calculated on a scale of zero to 100, where a score of 100 represents ideal -. The wellbeing index is based on six main elements, evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and basic access.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tracks U.S. wellbeing and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit well-beingindex.com.
*To learn more about well-being go to
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146288/Hawaii-No-Wellbeing-West-Virginia-Last.aspx
Underemployment
North Dakota has a underemployment rating of 9.0-11.9 percent and is in the top 10 states of the union not only in terms of underemployment, but also on measures of economic confidence and job creation.
Nationally, 18.9 percent of Americans were underemployed in 2010, but rates varied substantially across states. A group of six states, mostly in the middle of the country, had underemployment rates of less than 15 percent in 2010 and North Dakota was one of them with less than 12 percent underemployment. Underemployed Americans are generally those who are not working to their desired capacity. The definition of unemployment used as a component of underemployment closely follows the government’s definition; respondents are “unemployed” if they don’t have a job, and are actively looking for work and are available to begin work.
The extent of underemployment in the U.S. varies widely by state, from relatively low levels in the energy states of North Dakota and Wyoming to quite high levels in a number of states, including the nation’s largest, California.
*To learn more about underemployment go to
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146486/Underemployment-Lowest-North-Dakota-Wyoming.aspx
Note: Thanks to Ambassador and North Dakota Department of Commerce Marketing Intern Stacey Loula for authoring this post.
The Youth Office at the North Dakota Department of Commerce has released a collection of nearly 50 video interviews that highlight promising North Dakota careers for young people. “Career Conversations” is a career awareness program designed to connect students, parents and educators to high-demand professions in North Dakota.
The educational videos are five to ten minutes in length and available on the youth office website at www.ndyouthforward.com. The videos are also posted on www.youtube.com/ndcareerconversation and www.teachertube.com. The videos highlight careers in a number of areas including healthcare, insurance, banking, education, energy, information technology and law.
The office reaches out to youth in a variety of ways, especially through social networks such as Facebook (www.facebook.com/NDYouthForward) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/NDyouthforward).
