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Robert, now of Ames, Iowa, sends this about job prospects in the Dakotas:

I saw your post on unemployment rates today and, unlike Shayne in Houma, I was frankly not surprised to see South Dakota's two major cities atop the list. I grew up in Rapid City, and most of my family still lives there or in Sioux Falls, and I know the state well. I am in college in Iowa now, and I think that if I were to go back to look for a job when I finish, I might well be able to find one.
But there would be trade-offs.
Unemployment is low in South Dakota, but wages are low too. And I would have a hard time finding the job that I want. There are only sixteen companies that employ 1,000 people or more in South Dakota: seven hospitals, three agricultural firms, and two each of banks, universities and military installations. If you have a skill set that is not on that list, you have to either wait for a specialist job to open in one of those firms, get a job doing something else at a much lower salary, or leave. You could start your own firm, but South Dakota is still extremely rural -- there aren't many people there to buy your goods, and why would someone in Denver or Chicago want to buy your widgets if there were anyone in their own city who could produce it the added cost of trucking it in from a thousand miles away?
I still think South Dakota is a great place to live. But I don't think most people, if they were to go there, would think that it is the best place in the country to find a job. As you have so often warned, this is an economic picture that you miss if you only look at a single indicator, like unemployment.

categories: Letters

4:23 - November 25, 2008

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