Since most of the jobs are oil-related, they involve long hours of hard labor in a dirty environment. There's also a housing shortage, so you’ll probably have to share a room with a bunch of guys. Also, company towns have horrible gender ratios, so it’s not a great a place to be if you’re a woman[1]. All that plus −30 degrees weather[2].

1 - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/us/16women.html?_r=0

2 - http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/12/05/new-cold-snap-prom...

This is actually not the first oil boom in ND.

Housing availability is the big killer, plus lack of experience with a place that can -40F in the winter before windchill and 100F in the summer[1]. Going with the lack of housing is an overloaded infrastructure (water, sewer) that is being built up as fast as it can.

[edit] Also, a lack of people trained in the vocational skills needed for work in the area.

If I had the cash[2] I would try two things. I would probably build a combo capsule hotel, drug store, and laundry mat in the area (for single folks).

For a second thing, I have been fascinated with using pre-fab modules (think cargo container-ish) with standardized utility hookup that could be plugged into a shell building. Build a couple of building down the oil fields and see if the containers migrate.

1) this does play hell with the vehicles. I wrote a grant 20 year ago that included the stats on that and car maintenance given income. It was an interesting combo.

2) we are talking $$$$ millions

From what I've read those areas are like boom towns of old, they are having an influx of people moving there for jobs. Often to the detriment to local communities, according to locals.

But picking up and moving is not an easy thing, especially with family. Speaking from experience by moving my family to three different states spread across the lower half of the US because of work, moving can be a difficult and expensive thing to do. Most of our current debt is due to moving.

Historically, North Dakota hasn't been a fun place to live, and it has lost population to other states during most of my lifetime. The oil boom is a new phenomenon there, and the "cities" near the oil fields have few fun places at which to spend the money earned by the oilfield workers. This may change over time if the oil production and natural gas production is sustained, and infrastructure development continues there. So an early comment of mine for more details.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5072755

P.S. The cities in Minnesota mentioned in the article that was submitted to open the thread are not particularly close to North Dakota and are not tied to the petroleum economy. They are college towns and rather pleasant to live in.

...and few women. People complain about Silicon Valley being low on women, those people have never witnessed an oil boom.

I wouldn't be surprised if Minnesota's economy was experiencing at least partial boom due to North Dakota in any case. You have tons of weekend warriors who drive 6+ hours a day routinely that aren't afraid to drive 6 hours to civilization, and even though the oil fields have infrastructure, they're still sourcing it from wherever they can get it.

Leaving aside for a moment the huge number of people who have moved to North Dakota - so many that energy boom towns are experiencing severe housing shortages - working in the oilfields is physically grueling, and so unsuitable for anyone not in good physical condition; and your typical boom-town is not exactly the best place to bring a family.

I'd hazard:

- Lack of motivation/initiative. It seems far away, it seems risky, etc.

- Afraid of the cold

Or simply, ignorance of the fact that there's real opportunity there.

How would an unemployed person find out such a thing? His nearest social circle would likely not know such a thing, and this is not the sort of thing you randomly find out.

"How would an unemployed person find out such a thing?"

Just because you're unemployed doesn't mean you're stupid or illiterate. They can find things out by searching the web, just as we would. If they can't afford their own internet access, they can get it for free at the local library.

This is the reason people aren't moving to North Dakota:

https://www.google.com/search?q=fargo+nd+cold&oq=fargo+nd+co...

A big part of it is probably the travel/moving expenses. At a bare minimum, you need bus/cab fare (or a car + gas $) and enough for a security deposit on an apartment when you arrive.

That might be hard to scrape together if you're unemployed and living with parents.

Lots do, I'm guessing. The location and the work is undesirable.

Source: I live near the oilfields in AB.

Didn't RTA, but I have been told by 1st persons and reading that the high wages are slurped up by fantastically inflated prices for housing, food and other necessities. YMMV.