North Dakota Leads The Nation In Labor Force Participation

Since 1999, the trend for the national labor force participation rate (the percentage of working-age Americans with jobs) looks like this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Going back further, the national labor force participation rate is at a 37-year low. In September, it was at just 62.7 percent.

In North Dakota, the trend is very different. Outside of a boom-and-bust around the time of the 2008/2009 economic collapse, North Dakota’s trend has been upward according to numbers compiled by LibertyFound.org:

As a matter of fact, North Dakota has the highest labor force participation rate in the country at 72.9 percent.

If anything, North Dakota needs more workers to participate. Unlike most of the rest of the country, North Dakota’s problem is a worker shortage.