North Dakota’s June “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate was 3.2 percent.
It’s up slightly from May’s 2.8 percent.
"It's a completely normal effect," said Michael Ziesch with Job Service-North Dakota. "And that's purely an effect of entrance to the labor market looking for employment by recent college graduates and students looking for summer employment."
Ziesch says the report also reflects the slowdown in the oil industry.
"Mining is negative year over year," said Ziesch. "So has transportation. Those are two of the industries most closely associated with oil."
"Some of the first workers affected would have been commuter workers," Ziesch said. "And theyw ould actually sholw up on their home state unemployment rates."
Ziesch said the state may see more of the slowdown reflected in the numbers later this summer.
"We knew the effect would take a little while to filter through," said Ziesch. "The industry had every intention to hold on to workers. Also, there are still open and available jobs in the state."
Ziesch said that should help off-set some of the energy slowdown.
The President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council says despite on-going declines in the price of oil, things are “OK” in the North Dakota oil fields this summer.
"We needed some type of a correction," said Ron Ness. "We didn't need it this severe or this long."
Ness says the production side of the industry is good with 1.2 million barrels of crude being produced each day in the state. But Ness says there are some struggles to maintain workforce on the exploration side.
"Yeah, we're down quite a few jobs," said Ness. "That's part of the cycle of figuring out how to do this better. But there's still lots of work -- if you want to work, we'll find you a job."
Ness says he expects the “right-sizing” to continue into next year as companies find ways to do things better.
North Dakota has the second lowest unemployment rate in the US. Only Nebraska has a lower rate.
