As CNN Money reports, “North Dakota led its peers with an economic expansion of 7.6%. The state benefited from a boom in oil drilling, with new technology making it possible to tap oil in the Bakken area.”
While North Dakota leads the country in economic growth, Montana showed no economic growth. For Montana’s neighboring states, it appears to be a mixed bag, as CNN Money added:
Nearby Wyoming came in as the state with the worst economic performance, shrinking by 1.2% in 2011. Its mining sector, shaved 1.69 percentage points off of growth.
CNN video focused on North Dakota’s economy:
However, it’s not just oil that is attracting businesses to North Dakota. In fact, Business Week is reporting more job openings in non-oil counties.
Oil barons, energy experts, politicians and even former Major League Baseball manager Tony LaRussa were in North Dakota this week to revel in the good fortune from an oil boom that has hundreds of job seekers flocking to the western part of the state.
But employers say there’s also good reason to head east.
A majority of job openings, nearly 66 percent, were in counties that don’t produce oil.