Nebraska has its own share of foreclosed properties, including handyman specials, but the state did not feel the impact of the foreclosure crisis as much as most U.S. states. Although foreclosures are also part of the state’s housing market realities, its residential property industry has remained relatively stable since the start of the crisis around five years ago. Omaha foreclosures and distressed properties in the rest of the state are also concerns for Nebraska’s housing industry. However, the number of foreclosures in the region has remained low compared with foreclosure hotbed states like Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. According to economists, the foreclosure crisis was further aggravated in these areas by a surge in unemployment rates.

Aside from Nebraska foreclosures being lower than in other parts of the U.S., majority of industries in the state are those that were not directly hit by the foreclosure crisis. In a nationwide ranking of the most economically stressed states in the country, areas that rely heavily on real estate, hotel, and food service industries posted the highest increases in economic stress. This is because such industries took the brunt of the impact of massive foreclosures and cheap homes like handyman specials. When the housing market tanked, these industries declined along with housing. These are also areas that have lost a lot of jobs, thereby creating more homeowners who are unable to meet their monthly loan obligations.

Nebraska’s workers are mostly involved in wholesale businesses, insurance, transportation, support sectors and financial services industries. Although foreclosed properties, including handyman specials, will remain a concern for the state this 2011, most local economists are optimistic that Nebraska will be able to recover faster from the effects of the recession than other U.S. regions. They added that they expect its housing and job market sectors to remain relatively healthy for the rest of the year.

The state of Nebraska in the USA is about to get a half-billion dollar boost from the oil industry. Work will begin shortly on the Nebraska section of the Keystone Pipeline – a 2,148 mile long conduit costing US $5.2 billion that will carry half a million barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to refineries in the USA.

The 215-mile section in Nebraska will cost US£490 million to build and will employ up to 900 construction workers within the state – half of them employed from the local workforce. Once the pipeline is completed, it will contribute to ensuring drilling jobs, oil rig jobs and oil careers in both Canada and the USA and be an integral part of the oil industry superstructure for years to come.

These pipelines, crossing state, county and even country borders, have been nicknamed ‘traveling stimulus packages’ because of the amount of revenue they bring to communities who play host to them. Not only do oil jobs benefit from their construction, but jobs on the edges of the industry as well, particularly in heavy engineering. Those working on the pipeline stay in local hotels, drink in local bars and generally spend a fair percentage of their paycheck in the local community.

The company in charge of the operation, TransCanada, has also addressed environmental concerns expressed by the residents who will have to live with the pipeline once it is completed. To build the Nebraska portion of the pipeline, TransCanada had to buy the rights to pass through the property of nearly 500 landowners, most of them farmers. Assurances that the pipeline is being built using state of the art equipment and materials including anti-corrosion polymer coatings and 24 hour monitoring from an operations center have gone some way to belaying the grievances of environmentalists and residents.

As construction is set to begin on this section of the pipeline, TransCanada are already in the planning stages for an even larger, US$7 billion pipeline that would cross the state farther to the west during 2011 and 2012, again assuring more jobs both in the construction and the oil industries. The pipeline is designed to tap into the plentiful reserve of Canadian tar sands oil which will reduce the demand for overseas oil from countries that America may have political ‘problems’ with. The US is determined to increase its home-produced supply of petroleum products, and the Keystone project, which is an integral part of that plan, has been years in the making. Development is continuous, with yet another project beginning in Nebraska next year to link a new branch of the pipeline beginning in southern Nebraska and connecting to a pipeline complex in Oklahoma.

Compensation to landowners who will be directly affected by the pipeline and its construction could run into millions of dollars, but the company feel that good relations with the people of Nebraska is an important part of the operation. Extensive environmental impact reports have given the company detailed knowledge on the exact impact of the pipeline and compensation packages have taken into account the needs and requirements of the landowners very carefully. The company is even willing to pay to fix fences or replace trees damaged by the construction phase.

With an army of workers about to descend on the state of Nebraska, the economic future looks a little brighter for this corner of the United States, and oil jobs in two countries will be secured by the completion of this ground breaking project.