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South Dakota e-Labor Bulletin

March 2023

What areas of the state have the most job openings?

A recent inquiry one of our Job Service offices passed along from a local group they serve used online-advertised job openings data from an interesting perspective we hadn’t thought about prior. The original question was about the concentration of job openings in that particular area of the state. The local group was wondering if they have a higher proportion of the state’s job openings than other areas of the state. (Or, from a slightly different angle, they were thinking the labor shortage is more severe there than in other locations.) They were looking for data to see if that is the case.

Although more complete research and in-depth analysis would be needed to unearth a more scientific response to that question because of the many factors involved, we found job openings data in concert with population and employment data by area brought to light some interesting observations.

The online-advertised job openings data mentioned is available in our virtual labor market data system. The source of the data is Geographic Solutions Inc., the private vendor of that system. Geographic Solutions uses job "spidering" to collect the jobs data online, a process that extracts content from job openings posted on the internet from a wide variety of sources. Geographic Solutions' spidering technology obtains jobs and real-time labor market intelligence from multiple sources of online job posting websites including, but not limited to, national and state job boards, existing public job listing sites and employer sites.

To ensure quality data, their approach uses a well-designed, quality spidering strategy that directs the research and development of spidering and parsing processes. They identify quality sources and enforce controlled procedures for gathering and organizing job data. They constantly review and update this data for accuracy and freshness of the job postings. Geographic Solutions spiders and updates real-time, job-related data daily. The spidering process currently captures South Dakota job openings data from Career Builder, Hot Jobs, America's Labor Exchange, Job Central, Fortune 500 corporations, and state job boards (including SDWORKS, the state's online job bank provided and managed by the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation).

The job openings data is available in the virtual system for the prior day, as well as historically by month, quarter and year. Because the data is available by area (county and for the state’s two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)), it is possible to see what areas have the most job openings. Using online-advertised job openings data for February 2023, we can see which counties had the most openings.

For the most part, these counties are also South Dakota’s more densely populated counties. So it is not too surprising they have the most job openings.

Considering each county's share of the state's job openings

To more precisely answer the posed question which prompted this article, we can easily calculate what share each county had of the total job openings statewide. It is important to note in those cases where the exact location of a job opening cannot be determined, the job opening is instead counted just in the statewide tally. Likewise, a job opening which indicates it can be done remotely from any location is included only in the statewide tally.

With the column of percentages added, we can now see exactly what share of statewide openings each county has. Does this tell us much as to whether any area has proportionately more openings than other locales? Aren’t these also the state’s more densely populated counties, so it stands to reason they would also account for more job openings?

Comparing each county's share of the state's job openings and population

In the table above, we added the most current county population data available (2021). Indeed, with just a few exceptions, we see those counties which account for the largest percentage of the state’s job openings (ranking within the top 10 as having the greatest percentage of the state’s openings) also account for the largest share of population. One exception is Hughes County, which accounts for the fifth largest percentage of job openings in the state while being the state’s 12th largest county population-wise. We believe the concentration of state government jobs in Pierre (Hughes County) explains the difference. Based on daily job openings data in Hughes County, the Public Administration industry sector (government) has the second largest number of job openings there—behind only Health Care and Social Assistance (which is the industry with the most job openings statewide).

Another exception is Lincoln County, which accounts for 4.5% of job openings in the state, but a larger percentage (7.6%) of the state’s population. This can be explained by the close socio-economic interrelationship of this county and neighboring Minnehaha County, which will be discussed more later in this article.

Beadle County is also an exception by a small margin, since it ranks 10th in its percent of the state’s job openings but 11th in its share of the state’s population. But the county’s percentage shares of the state’s job openings and population are very similar, at 2.2% and 2.1%, respectively. The slightly higher proportion of job openings may be due to the predominance of manufacturing in Beadle County, with some production jobs being difficult to fill. It is also home to a regional medical center, so shares woes with other areas having many openings for several types of healthcare workers.

Adding each county's share of total employment into the analysis

To add another factor of relativity, we added total employment data into the mix. Looking at each county’s share of total employment in the state (from the labor force data series) along with the percentage of statewide job openings and population provides a more meaningful look at whether a certain area is “worse off,” relatively speaking, than other areas as far as job openings/demand for labor.

Because of the natural lag time of collecting and estimating labor force data by county, February total employment data was not yet available as of this writing. We used January 2023 total employment data from the labor force series instead. For better comparability, we used job openings data for January 2023 (rather than February 2023 data as used above), and the 2021 population estimates. The table below lists the counties with the most online-advertised job openings in January 2023, including each county’s percentage of openings statewide and rank among other counties. The population data was included as well in the next three columns. Then the January 2023 total employment data was added, along with the percentage of each county’s share of the state’s total employment that month and each county’s rank among other counties’ share of employment.

For the most part, those counties with the greatest share of job openings in the state also accounted for the larger shares of population and employment. But there are a few interesting anomalies. We’ve already discussed one, Hughes County, above. This county, home to the state’s capitol of Pierre, accounted for 4.1% of job openings in the state in January 2023, ranking 4th among all 66 counties on that factor. It accounts for just 2.0% of the state’s population, ranking 12th in the state. Hughes County’s January 2023 employment was estimated at 9,537, 2.1% of the state’s employment—ranking it in 11th place for share of the state’s employment. As mentioned above, the concentration of the state government jobs is at play.

Also as mentioned above, Lincoln County had a slightly lower share of January 2023 job openings (4.1%) proportionately to its share of the state’s population (7.6%) and employment (8.0%). Lincoln County has a large number of residents who commute to work in surrounding counties, with a large portion (more than 62% based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer Household Survey, LEHD) working in Minnehaha County. From another perspective, employing establishments in Minnehaha County outnumbered those in Lincoln County by more than three to one in 2021.

We may also be seeing the impact of another recent trend (intensified during and since the COVID-19 pandemic) of people moving into popular areas of South Dakota from outside the state and bringing their remote work with them. They’re drawn by desirable qualities like lower crime rates, lower concentrations of people, availability of quality healthcare, and entertainment, retail and leisure activities. Because these new remote workers bring their jobs with them, they add to population and employment figures without corresponding job openings.

Interestingly, Yankton County had a slightly higher concentration of job openings (3.6% of openings statewide) than their share of population or employment. This may be due to a large concentration of Manufacturing employment in the county, with many harder-to-fill production occupations currently having job openings. The State of South Dakota’s Human Services Center located in Yankton also has many job openings, some in healthcare occupations in which hiring is especially competitive and difficult currently.

The final two counties included in the table above as noteworthy when comparing shares of job openings, population and total employment are Lawrence and Meade counties. Lawrence County accounted for a slightly smaller share of the state’s job openings (2.3%) than their proportion of either population (2.9%) or total employment (3.0%). The differences were even more significant for Meade County, which accounted for just 1.0% of job openings compared to 3.4% of the state’s population and 3.0% of total employment.

In both cases, it’s quite likely we’re seeing a phenomenon similar to Lincoln County. Because of its popularity (especially in recent years) as a scenic place to call home, more than 23% of Lawrence County residents commute to work in surrounding counties, particularly Pennington County (more than 12%). Looking again at employment opportunities using employer data by county, Pennington County employing establishments outnumber those in Lawrence County by more than three to one.

The commuter-to-work story is even more evident in the case of Meade County. With population concentrated largely in the southwest corner and along the western border of the county, a large number of residents commute elsewhere to work, specifically to Pennington County to a big degree. Based on the most current LEHD data available, almost 53% of those living in Meade County work in Pennington County. As of 2021, Meade County had just one employing establishment for each of Pennington County’s five employers. The comparison is even more extreme when looking at worker levels, with Pennington County employers accounting for more than seven times the number of workers of Meade County employers.

The recent trend mentioned above of remote workers from outside our borders moving to popular South Dakota areas to live and bringing their jobs with them is also quite likely part of the picture in Meade County.

Make your own data comparisons

If you’d like to compare job openings data for your area to the statewide level, you may find helpful our instructions for finding the data in the virtual labor market data system. The county population and total employment data referenced above can also be found in the virtual system using menu pages on our website, complete with links to step-by-step instructions. As always, please contact us at 605.626.2314 as needed for assistance.