Drilling equipment graveyards are dotting the North Dakota landscape as more and more companies have stopping drilling due to the price of oil and its uncertain future. For seven years "jobs were plentiful and businesses prospered. High-school graduates earned six-figure salaries in the oil fields, and cash flowed into the hands of those lucky enough to own the mineral rights to land rich with oil. North Dakota’s sudden success coincided with an economic slump in the rest of the country" and "North Dakota boasted the lowest unemployment rate in the country." North Dakotans thought this boom would last, but the bust has arrived, hitting drilling operations hardest. Service companies predict that drilling won’t bounce back for at least two or three years, even if the cost of oil shoots upward.
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