The demand that comes with Saskatchewan's booming economy is causing constant strain on people living in one of the province's most prosperous cities.

Sitting on the edge of one of the hottest oil fields in North America and located minutes away from a multi-billion-dollar SaskPower expansion project, Estevan, population 11,000, has developed a Canada-wide reputation as the place to go for people seeking work.

But the rapid growth has left some companies struggling to find skilled workers and made it hard for people willing to come to Estevan for work to find housing.

Jason Morrissey, a project manager for an electrical contracting company, working with SaskPower on the clean coal project at the Boundary Dam power plant, told CBC News he is in need of 150 trained workers.

"Right now we're looking for journey electricians, apprentice electricians, journey instrument techs, apprentice instrument techs, schedule planners you name it, we're looking for it right now," said Morrissey.

He's trying to recruit people from across Canada, but it's tough to find people who want to move to Estevan, he said.

Morrissey said the shift work is one of the problems, but adds that the company offers travel allowances, competitive wages and benefits.

"Estevan is only so big, with the economy growing, everything else needs to grow…everything is growing, but it's not growing fast enough…so it does become a problem to find places to stay," he said.

In fact one of the biggest difficulties the city is experiencing is lack of housing, with Estevan's vacancy rate sitting 0.6 per cent — where 3 per cent is considered to be a healthy rate, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Estevan is located about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina and about 25 kilometres north from the U.S. border.