May 16, 2018

Question of the Day: What state has the highest percentage of jobs earning more than $15/hour?

Answer: North Dakota

Question: 

  • Any guesses on why North Dakota has so many $15/hour jobs? [Hint: It comes out of the ground and rhymes with fail spoil]?
  • Would you consider moving to an area based on the availability of high paying jobs? Why or why not? 
  • Do you think there is a relationship between the unemployment rate and average wages in a given state? Explain. 

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from Williston Dispatch):

There are 368 health care job openings from Williston to Minot for just one hospital, and about 40 teacher openings just between Divide, Williams and McKenzie counties. That’s a lot, but it is just the tiny tip of a big spear when it comes to unfilled job openings in the Oil Patch — a spear that is cutting into what the economic recovery could be, even as oil and gas companies are ramping back up to meet $60 oil. The latest jobs report shows a 33.2 percent increase in mining and oil extraction jobs in Williams County for the third quarter from 2016 to 2017. That is 2,167 more jobs. McKenzie County’s increase for the same sector is 20.6 percent or 256 jobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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