BISMARCK, N.D. —
Home improvement retailer Menard Inc. says it will hire workers from its home base in Wisconsin and fly them to North Dakota to staff a store in Minot, which is near the state’s booming oil patch and has more jobs than takers.
The company said in a statement that it plans to hire 50 workers in Eau Claire, Wis., where it has its headquarters, and fly them weekly to Minot, which is also in the middle of an unprecedented building boom as it recovers from record flooding last year. Menard, which has more than 200 stores in the Upper Midwest, said this would be the first time it has flown employees to work weeklong stints, housing them in hotels, but that it “is going to be a permanent solution for as far as we can see.”
Minot is North Dakota’s fourth-largest city and had been growing rapidly even before the flooding that swamped some 4,100 homes and displaced thousands of residents. Its population grew from 36,500 in 2000 to about 41,000 in 2010, U.S. Census data show. City officials say the present population is nearing 50,000.
AP story section
November 30, 2012
Menard to fly Wisconsin workers in to staff ND store
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