Aug. 30, 2023

The Sioux Falls metro area had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation for July – tying its record low at 1.4 percent.

Rapid City’s metro area was the third lowest in the U.S. at 1.6 percent, with Burlington, Vermont, placing between the two South Dakota cities at 1.5 percent.

The Sioux Falls unemployment rate, which is not seasonally adjusted and is preliminary, represents 2,337 residents in the four-county MSA who do not have jobs, have actively looked for one in the past four weeks and are available to work. It also includes those who have been laid off temporarily. In June, the number of unemployed was 2,838.

The total labor force for the Sioux Falls MSA, those who are employed and unemployed, was 168,582 in July, down slightly from 168,607 the previous month.

A year ago, the metro area jobless rate was 1.5 percent, with 2,416 people who were unemployed out of a labor force of 163,908. The jobless rate also was 1.4 percent in September 2022, but before that, it hadn’t been that low since October 1999.

Of the largest cities in South Dakota, Pierre had the lowest jobless rate in July at 1 percent, and Vermillion had the highest at 2.3 percent.

The number of job openings in the Sioux Falls MSA dropped to 14,795 in July, according to the state’s virtual labor market data system. There were 15,987 open positions the previous month. A year ago, there were 23,341 openings.

Nonfarm wage and salaried worker levels in the Sioux Falls MSA dropped from June to July by 2,100 people to 174,300, a decline of 1.2 percent. Government jobs, which include public educational services, saw the biggest decline, dropping 9.4 percent. The drop is consistent with historical trends, with schools on summer break, the Labor Department said. Mining, logging and construction was the only category to show growth at 3.3 percent.

Compared with a year ago, nonfarm wage and salaried worker levels were up 3 percent in the MSA, which includes Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties.

South Dakota’s unemployment rate in July was 1.9 percent, up from its record low of 1.8 percent in June. That also was the national record, which South Dakota shared with New Hampshire until the East Coast state broke it in July at 1.7 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ record-tracking comparisons date back to 1976.

South Dakota’s jobless rate, which is seasonally adjusted, represents 9,000 people who do not have jobs, have actively looked for one in the past four weeks and are available to work, along with those laid off temporarily, according to the state Labor Department. A year ago, the rate was 2.1 percent, and there were 10,000 unemployed South Dakotans.

In July, South Dakota’s labor force grew by 800 workers from the previous month to 482,700. A year ago, it was 476,000.

The labor supply, those who would be available to staff a new or expanding business, was estimated at 45,685 people. That’s an increase from 42,080 in June and includes people who are not working and those who would like to change jobs.

The national unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in July, up from 3.6 in June and unchanged from a year ago.