WILLISTON, North Dakota - A town halfway across the country is already experiencing the benefits and drawbacks of an oil boom.
Williston North Dakota sits right on top of the Bakken Shale. It use to be a sleepy town, miles and miles from just about anything. Now the barren stretch of land leading into the city is dotted with oil wells and drilling rigs.
"We're saying we need like 48,000 wells drilled with what we know today. And we did 2,000 wells last year," said Thomas Rolfstad, Director of Williston Economic Development.
The thousands of people needed to drill those wells, and work for the 400 supply companies that have set up in Williston, have descended on the city and the population has exploded.
Just four years ago Williston's population was 12,500, now it's about 20,000 and it's expected to climb to about 25,000 in the coming years.
Almost everyone here has a job, either in the oil industry, where you can make $100,000 a year or more, or somewhere in the booming economy that's benefiting from all those good paying drilling jobs.
"The unemployment rate in Williams County, where Williston is located, is 9/10 of one percent," said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser. "Which I suspect might be the lowest in the country. If you want a job you can find one."
There aren't enough unemployed people in Williston and Williams County to fill all of the current job openings. Right now there are about 3,000 to 4,000 jobs available.
Some of those jobs are in retail stores and restaurants and they pay pretty well also. If you work the three hour lunch rush at Taco John's, you start at $15 an hour. During other times the pay starts at $9.00 an hour, well above the $7.25 minimum wage.
It's the same at McDonald's where business is non-stop.
"From the moment we are open or show up in the morning there's usually a line in our drive-thru until the moment we shut down at night. I mean it's just busy all the time," said McDonald's Manager Vern Brekhus.
Just about every business in town is busy these days including contractors, who are working overtime trying to build houses for the thousands who are moving to the area.
"We built 17 single family homes this year," said Tyler Millyard of Constructors West. "We plan on building 30 next year. And we've got one 14-unit apartment complex that's up that will finish June of this year."
And that's just one builder.
In the past three years, 2,000 housing units and nine hotels have been built. Even with that, hotels are booked up months in advance, apartments are full and housing prices are skyrocketing.
One thousand more apartment units and 400 more single family homes should be available by summer.
