Job centers trying to fill thousands of positions across the Bakken region.
Thousands of jobs are available for the right candidates in the Bakken Shale Play. The problem is finding those candidates and attracting them to the industry.
“The Williston area is growing by leaps and bounds and employers in almost every industry need employees,” says Cindy Sanford, a customer service manager for Job Service North Dakota. “There are numerous jobs or careers for job seekers with all types of education and skills.”
According to Sanford, there were 2,189 jobs posted to her company’s website in January 2014.
Command Center Inc. (Bakken Staffing) has been helping with the growth and has also been affected by it, according to Anna Denton, a business development specialist for the company based in Williston.
“We’re one of the top branches in the country because of the growth here,” Denton says. “We’re actually employing more people in our facility because of the growth in order for us to keep up with it.”
Command Center is a staffing agency that sends workers out on a daily or weekly basis for daily pay. Job seekers apply directly with Command Center and they get them set up with daily, temp or direct-hire positions.
“There are endless positions in endless jobs,” says Kyle Tennessen, branch manager for the Williston Command Center location. “The market is starting to be more specialized, but it’s in an early phase.”
Housing needs improvement
While the job market is phenomenal, Denton says the biggest obstacle is getting the people there to apply for those jobs. She says additional housing in the Bakken region will help.
“It’s been really tough, but I’ve noticed that there’s a break in it this year because we have more housing coming in,” Denton says. “It’s still really costly, but at least there’s more housing here now and you don’t have to come here and live out of a travel trailer.”
Denton and Tennessen are both surprised with how much things have grown, even in their few years in North Dakota. Denton has been in the state for two and a half years and Tennessen not much more than that.
“I moved from Milwaukee, have a marketing degree from UW-Whitewater, and still could hardly find anything in that area,” Tennessen says. “I came out here and had this position within two days of when I started looking.”
While the housing market is slowly improving, the communities are becoming more family friendly as well and that’ll help with filling all those vacancies too, Denton says.
She noted that Williston has recently opened a recreation center for families, and schools are expanding and improving.
“They’re making it more family friendly,” Denton says. “They want to make it a place where you can bring your whole family.”
Changing job market
An analysis by Job Services North Dakota shows that entry-level positions are becoming scarcer and specialized jobs are beginning to show up now, but it’s still an early phase, according to Sanford.
“Entry level positions are harder and harder to come across. People with no oil and gas experience will not be needed hardly at all,” Tennessen says. “So many people here will have experience that they’ll slowly stop looking for people with no experience.”
Tennessen says those looking to be a part of the oil and gas boom had better make their way to the area fast.
“For the most part, if you’re not early 20s, high school diploma, strong and look physically fit, you’ll most likely be passed over, unless you’re looking for a specific field like truck driving, where physicals don’t matter.”
Denton says that while most people walking in are looking for those oil industry jobs, there are other jobs in the area – like stores and offices – that need people as well and it isn’t taking long to fill positions.
“I had a girl walk into the office and within an hour I had her employed,” Denton says. “That’s really how fast it goes and that’s what I do on a daily basis.”
Tennessen agreed with Denton and noted a few of the jobs that are readily available in the area thanks to the oil industry boom, like construction, office and administration work, and housekeeping.
“Some of these you can literally get a job within moments of applying, they may not pay well, but there are always positions available,” Tennessen says. “Most are now looking for long-term employees, they are looking for steady people who want to stay here.”
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