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News Release Information

14-100-CHI
Friday, January 24, 2014

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

County Employment and Wages in South Dakota – Second Quarter 2013

South Dakota’s only large county, Minnehaha, reported employment growth of 1.8 percent from June 2012 to June 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (Large counties are defined as those with employment of 75,000 or more as measured by 2012 annual average employment.) Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that in June 2013, Minnehaha County’s employment level of 120,100 accounted for 28.8 percent of total employment within the state.

Nationally, employment rose 1.6 percent during this 12-month period, as 288 of the 334 largest U.S. counties gained jobs. Nationwide, the 334 largest counties made up 71.4 percent of total U.S. employment, which stood at 135.1 million in June 2013.

The average weekly wage in Minnehaha County was $772 in the second quarter of 2013, 1.2 percent higher than one year ago. (See table 1.) Nationally, the average weekly wage rose 2.1 percent over the year to $921 in the second quarter of 2013.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 65 counties in South Dakota with employment below 75,000. All 65 of these smaller counties had average weekly wages below the national average. (See table 2.)

Large county wage changes

Minnehaha County’s 1.2-percent wage growth from the second quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2013 ranked 227th nationally. (See table 1.) Among the 334 largest counties in the nation, 304 had over-the-year increases in average weekly wages in the second quarter of 2013. Union, N.J., had the largest wage increase among the largest U.S. counties (8.1 percent). Davidson, Tenn., had the largest average weekly wage decrease with a loss of 2.2 percent.

Large county average weekly wages

Minnehaha County’s $772 average wage placed in the bottom quartile among the 334 large counties, ranking 252nd. Nationally, Santa Clara, Calif., held the top position among the large counties with an average weekly wage of $1,810. New York, N.Y., was second at $1,675, followed by San Mateo, Calif. ($1,632) and Washington, D.C. ($1,575).

Average weekly wages in South Dakota's smaller counties

All 65 counties in South Dakota with employment below 75,000 had average weekly wages lower than the national average of $921. Among these smaller counties, Union County had the highest average weekly wage at $805 and Mellette County had the lowest at $406. (See table 2.)

When all 66 counties in South Dakota were considered, none had wages above the national average of $921. Five reported average weekly wages under $500, 18 had wages from $500 to $549, 14 reported wages from $550 to $599, 14 reported wages from $600 to $649, and 15 had wages of $650 or more. (See chart 1.)

Additional statistics and other information

Quarterly data for states have been included in this release in table 3. For additional information about quarterly employment and wages data, please read the Technical Note or visit the QCEW Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/.

Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online features comprehensive information by detailed industry on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. The 2012 edition of this publication contains selected data produced by Business Employment Dynamics (BED) on job gains and losses, as well as selected data from the first quarter 2013 version of the national news release. Tables and additional content from Employment and Wages Annual Averages 2012 are now available online at www.bls.gov/cew/publications/employment-and-wages-annual-averages/2012/home.htm. The 2013 edition of Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online will be available later in September 2014.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.


Technical Note

Average weekly wage data by county are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, also known as the ES-202 program. The data are derived from summaries of employment and total pay of workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) legislation and provided by State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). The 9.2 million employer reports cover 135.1 million full- and part-time workers. The average weekly wage values are calculated by dividing quarterly total wages by the average of the three monthly employment levels of those covered by UI programs. The result is then divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. It is to be noted, therefore, that over-the-year wage changes for geographic areas may reflect shifts in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and such other factors as hours of work. Thus, wages may vary among counties, metropolitan areas, or states for reasons other than changes in the average wage level. Data for all states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), counties, and the nation are available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/; however, data in QCEW press releases have been revised and may not match the data contained on the Bureau’s Web site.

QCEW data are not designed as a time series. QCEW data are simply the sums of individual establishment records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time. Establishments can move in or out of a county or industry for a number of reasons—some reflecting economic events, others reflecting administrative changes.

The preliminary QCEW data presented in this release may differ from data released by the individual states as well as from the data presented on the BLS Web site. These potential differences result from the states’ continuing receipt, review and editing of UI data over time. On the other hand, differences between data in this release and the data found on the BLS Web site are the result of adjustments made to improve over-the-year comparisons. Specifically, these adjustments account for administrative (noneconomic) changes such as a correction to a previously reported location or industry classification. Adjusting for these administrative changes allows users to more accurately assess changes of an economic nature (such as a firm moving from one county to another or changing its primary economic activity) over a 12-month period. Currently, adjusted data are available only from BLS press releases.

Table 1. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States and the largest county in South Dakota, second quarter 2013 (2)
Area Employment Average weekly wage (3)
June 2013 (thousands) Percent change, June 2012-13 (4) National ranking by percent change (5) Average weekly wage National ranking by level (5) Percent change, second quarter 2012-13 (4) National ranking by percent change (5)

United States (6)

135,094.0 1.6 -- $921 -- 2.1 --

South Dakota

417.0 1.0 -- 689 50 1.8 30

Minnehaha, S.D.

120.1 1.8 131.0 772 252 1.2 227

Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Percent changes were computed from quarterly employment and pay data adjusted for noneconomic county reclassifications.
(5) Ranking does not include the county of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
(6) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
 

Table 2. Covered (1) employment and wages in the United States and all counties in South Dakota, second quarter 2013 (2)
Area Employment June 2013 Average weekly wage (3)

United States (4)

135,093,963 $921

South Dakota

416,983 689

Aurora

992 526

Beadle

8,756 644

Bennett

836 522

Bon Homme

1,874 534

Brookings

16,954 711

Brown

21,156 684

Brule

2,005 511

Buffalo

546 671

Butte

2,893 550

Campbell

520 518

Charles Mix

3,600 561

Clark

1,109 531

Clay

5,702 632

Codington

16,322 651

Corson

812 624

Custer

3,136 547

Davison

12,620 635

Day

2,057 517

Deuel

1,631 615

Dewey

2,157 631

Douglas

1,177 555

Edmunds

1,322 616

Fall River

2,594 572

Faulk

638 590

Grant

3,875 673

Gregory

1,526 504

Haakon

775 601

Hamlin

1,865 570

Hand

1,357 539

Hanson

589 556

Harding

432 704

Hughes

10,703 711

Hutchinson

2,667 539

Hyde

556 667

Jackson

817 484

Jerauld

1,645 613

Jones

511 469

Kingsbury

1,972 537

Lake

4,835 637

Lawrence

11,839 576

Lincoln

18,079 769

Lyman

1,505 459

Marshall

1,811 600

McCook

1,386 547

McPherson

647 488

Meade

6,448 636

Mellette

360 406

Miner

742 560

Minnehaha

120,077 772

Moody

2,400 637

Pennington

57,288 678

Perkins

1,117 535

Potter

926 548

Roberts

3,560 558

Sanborn

700 537

Shannon

3,672 722

Spink

2,452 599

Stanley

1,425 574

Sully

614 559

Todd

2,821 613

Tripp

2,120 596

Turner

2,189 533

Union

9,254 805

Walworth

2,420 528

Yankton

12,678 663

Ziebach

276 724

Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
 

Table 3. Covered (1) employment and wages by state, second quarter 2013 (2)
State Employment Average weekly wage (3)
June 2013 (thousands) Percent change, June 2012-13 Average weekly wage National ranking by level Percent change, second quarter 2012-13 National ranking by percent change

United States (4)

135,094.0 1.6 $921 -- 2.1 --

Alabama

1,859.5 0.9 794 35 1.4 44

Alaska

342.6 -0.1 970 9 1.6 37

Arizona

2,438.1 1.8 877 20 1.7 32

Arkansas

1,150.4 -0.6 734 46 2.4 10

California

15,485.8 2.4 1,048 6 2.0 21

Colorado

2,359.4 2.9 933 14 1.6 37

Connecticut

1,666.3 1.0 1,128 3 1.5 41

Delaware

417.8 1.8 966 12 2.0 21

District of Columbia

725.0 0.9 1,575 1 2.1 19

Florida

7,402.0 2.4 822 29 2.0 21

Georgia

3,917.2 1.7 867 22 2.2 17

Hawaii

617.0 1.9 823 28 1.6 37

Idaho

642.7 2.7 683 51 1.9 28

Illinois

5,750.0 0.8 971 8 1.9 28

Indiana

2,863.4 1.1 776 42 1.7 32

Iowa

1,523.9 1.3 757 43 2.0 21

Kansas

1,350.0 1.2 779 41 2.1 19

Kentucky

1,790.6 0.6 782 38 1.3 46

Louisiana

1,894.7 0.9 824 27 2.4 10

Maine

604.4 0.4 732 47 1.8 30

Maryland

2,570.3 0.9 1,005 7 1.4 44

Massachusetts

3,352.7 1.3 1,131 2 2.0 21

Michigan

4,073.7 2.2 875 21 2.0 21

Minnesota

2,745.2 1.9 929 15 2.4 10

Mississippi

1,094.9 0.7 691 49 1.5 41

Missouri

2,668.2 1.2 803 33 1.6 37

Montana

448.4 1.5 717 48 2.4 10

Nebraska

941.0 0.9 737 45 2.6 7

Nevada

1,168.3 2.3 829 26 1.7 32

New Hampshire

629.1 0.8 916 17 2.9 4

New Jersey

3,917.5 1.0 1,084 5 2.6 7

New Mexico

795.0 0.4 781 39 -0.3 51

New York

8,804.9 1.1 1,118 4 2.0 21

North Carolina

3,985.1 1.7 808 31 2.5 9

North Dakota

433.7 3.2 887 18 3.7 1

Ohio

5,162.3 1.1 830 25 1.7 32

Oklahoma

1,560.7 0.9 794 35 3.5 2

Oregon

1,708.0 2.5 848 23 1.3 46

Pennsylvania

5,665.9 0.3 918 16 2.8 5

Rhode Island

465.5 1.0 880 19 2.3 16

South Carolina

1,864.9 1.8 747 44 1.5 41

South Dakota

417.0 1.0 689 50 1.8 30

Tennessee

2,709.3 1.5 820 30 0.5 49

Texas

11,078.8 2.7 944 13 2.4 10

Utah

1,259.7 2.8 783 37 2.2 17

Vermont

303.1 0.3 808 31 2.7 6

Virginia

3,685.4 0.7 968 11 1.7 32

Washington

3,013.3 2.2 969 10 2.4 10

West Virginia

713.1 -0.1 781 39 0.6 48

Wisconsin

2,768.2 0.6 801 34 3.0 3

Wyoming

290.4 0.4 845 24 0.5 49

Puerto Rico

926.1 -1.1 503 (5) 1.0 (5)

Virgin Islands

38.9 -3.0 706 (5) -13.8 (5)

Footnotes:
(1) Includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.
(2) Data are preliminary.
(3) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(4) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
(5) Data not included in the national ranking.
 

 Chart 1. Average weekly wages by county in South Dakota, second quarter 2013

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, January 24, 2014