Don Brunell

If you are looking for a family-wage job these days, there is no better place to look than the Dakotas . . . but for entirely different reasons.

While both states rely on agriculture, North Dakota’s Bakken oil field is driving that state’s economy, which boasts a 2.7 percent unemployment rate. It is the lowest among the 50 states, and there are thousands of jobs unfilled.

Propelled by well-paying jobs in its western oil-producing counties, the state’s average annual pay has jumped a whopping 44 percent since 2007. Workers in the oil and natural gas industry earned an average salary of $111,451...