With long hours, a high cost of living and few housing choices, the North Dakota Highway Patrol struggles to get applicants to accept job offers around the Oil Patch.
And now the Highway Patrol has to fill 15 open slots made available by the state Legislature.
Capt. Lori Malafa, administration services commander for the patrol, said it’s a guess how many of the 34 applicants will make it through the six-month academy beginning in January and take one of the jobs.
“They may go through the whole process and be offered a job and may not like the location and say no,” she said. “We have a really good pool of applicants and very good quality candidates. It’ll come down to whether they accept the position.”
She said hopefully, with so much work required of the applicants, they have accepted the idea of working in the Oil Patch. But the agency has been turned down before.
The Highway Patrol is one of many state agencies working to fill a total of 141 new state positions approved by the Legislature.
Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
