Commerce staff say 'Find the Good Life' marketing helped lift net migration; committee hears plan to add employer relocation grants

Senate appropriations members heard an extended briefing on the Find the Good Life talent-attraction campaign during the Commerce budget review. Allison, a Commerce staff member, summarized past funding and the Armstrong administration's recommendation: "In 23/25 we received an appropriation of 12,000,000, 6,000,000 to workforce, 6,000,000 to tourism. And in governor Armstrong's executive budget, he recommended, 5,000,000 for the Find the Good Life campaign."

Sarah, who leads marketing work at Commerce, told the committee that the campaign has been funded with one‑time dollars to date and that there is no ongoing base funding: "The Find the Good Life campaign is funded by the one time. There is no ongoing base money that campaign is funded by the one time appropriation." She said the program began with smaller discretionary funding in 2021–23 and expanded after positive early results.

Katie, workforce staff at Commerce, described how the program uses a candidate marketplace and the pipeline approach to move jobseekers toward employment opportunities and community placements. "Now we have a way for these job seekers on a national level to connect with employers that have jobs in the fields that they're looking for," she said. Katie described a forthcoming grant program that would be dollar-for-dollar matching to help employers cover moving or relocation costs; she said the grant maximum would be confirmed in guidance but described a working example of matching up to roughly $5,000 and noted typical relocation costs can range much higher.

Why it matters: Commerce told the committee North Dakota "ranks number 1 in net migration" based on national data they track; staff argued that continued marketing and employer grants are tools to sustain and improve workforce growth and retention.

Program mechanics discussed in the hearing include: use of marketing dollars to drive jobseekers into the state-managed pipeline and a candidate marketplace for employer‑jobseeker matching; a dollar-for-dollar employer grant to offset relocation costs for new hires; and an additional incentive for employers who hire via the candidate marketplace. Katie described employer matching and a small additional incentive paid if the hire came through Commerce's candidate marketplace.

Committee members pressed on program scale and duration. Senator Dwyer asked whether the full $6 million workforce allocation would be spent this biennium; Katie said the full allocation likely will not be spent before the biennium ends because of platform delays but that the candidate marketplace is now live and communities are beginning to use it. Senator Sickler asked about employer eligibility and caps; Katie said employers of any size across North Dakota may participate and that the grant limits would be included in final guidance.

Discussion versus decision: Committee members asked detailed operational questions and were given program design details; no formal appropriation decisions were recorded in the transcript segment.