New Unemployment Figures (Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Mitchell: 2009, credit card, how much)

[Jammie]

MJ, I just read that in our local paper yesterday and found it horrifying. For as nice as most of the people are around here, I just can't believe how uncaring and unfeeling many are where animals are concerned. It's like we're from the Dark Ages or something.

Personally, I think they need to make the penalties for animal abuse MUCH tougher here. It might make some of those fools think before they mistreat or abandon a helpless creature.

AND the sad thing is that now there are so many alternatives to abandonment. I don't know if the Humane Society would've taken them in if they'd have been brought there, but I do know that Pet Rescue would've either taken them in or would've found homes for them.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by Jammie

The new national stats are out and unemployment has now risen to 9.5%. It's a smaller increase then they figured, but jobs are still being lost. It sounds like many are being created. It's just going to take time and that's not always good enough for those who haven't worked for months. Hopefully this will all pass soon.

I also read an interesting article yesterday about population growth. Our state hit 800,000 people~FINALLY!!! When I first learned of our population in the early 60s, we were at 600,000. Just nice, slow growth.

Mitchell has lost just a few people going from 14,808 down to 14,752. I had originally understood that we had grown to about 17,000, but that must just be the county.

Harrisburg had the state's largest growth at 15%.

Rapid City's growth was 2.36% and they're up to 65,491.

Sioux Falls had a growth of 2.3% and is now up to 154,997. Kind of funny cause when I was younger, Sx. Falls had a population of about 70,000.

More stats~last night I was reading on another state forum and I was curious about a comment made about animal abuse/neglect. I did a search and what I found wasn't encouraging.

Animal Legal Defense Fund*:*2008 State Animal Protection Laws Rankings

We're not doing too hot and we should be ashamed. We all need to chip in and do more. We're nearly at the bottom of the rung and that's not good.

A little trivia for you. Only in recent years did South Dakota's population surpass our population totals in the 1920's. Back then it was spread fairly even throughout the state as we still had numerous homesteaders and little towns, many of which are barely memories now, to support these homesteaders. During the dirty 30's the exodus from our state was staggaring since nothing could be raised on these little farms for years and people found that much of our state was better fit for ranching than farming.

The number of towns that no longer exist, but were viable in the 1920's are too numerous to list.

In one of our least populated counties, Harding County, there were the following towns in the 1920's

Buffalo, Gill, Govert, Gustave, Redig, Murchison, Harding, Slim Buttes, Fladinoe, Camp Crook, Bullock, Gallup, Ashcroft, Willett, Karinen, Ladner, Line, Cammack, Ludlow, Ralph, Plateau, Bratsburg, & Revao.

How many from this list exist today?

[Jammie]

Interesting. I definitely agree that those small towns have disappeared since families no longer farm a quarter or two and now farm sections instead.

Do you know where our residents from the 20's migrated to?

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Interesting. I definitely agree that those small towns have disappeared since families no longer farm a quarter or two and now farm sections instead.

Do you know where our residents from the 20's migrated to?

A very large % of our population moved back east from which they came. The homesteaders were mostly recent immigrants from europe, thus many were sponsored by someone, usually a family member, who was already established in the US. These people were most often living in the eastern 1/3rd of the US where the available "free" land was no longer available. Often, this is where the dust bowl rufugees went back to. Many others packed it up and went west for jobs in California or projects like the Hoover Dam. From Texas thru North Dakota, every farmer was devastated in the central plains area.

[MJ1986]

Originally Posted by jmgg

A little trivia for you. Only in recent years did South Dakota's population surpass our population totals in the 1920's. Back then it was spread fairly even throughout the state as we still had numerous homesteaders and little towns, many of which are barely memories now, to support these homesteaders. During the dirty 30's the exodus from our state was staggaring since nothing could be raised on these little farms for years and people found that much of our state was better fit for ranching than farming.

The number of towns that no longer exist, but were viable in the 1920's are too numerous to list.

In one of our least populated counties, Harding County, there were the following towns in the 1920's

Buffalo, Gill, Govert, Gustave, Redig, Murchison, Harding, Slim Buttes, Fladinoe, Camp Crook, Bullock, Gallup, Ashcroft, Willett, Karinen, Ladner, Line, Cammack, Ludlow, Ralph, Plateau, Bratsburg, & Revao.

How many from this list exist today?

jmgg, Awesome! I love ghost towns, and historical areas of SD.

To take a guess... Buffalo, the county seat... Redig (maybe), and Camp Crook (maybe)...

[Jammie]

BankFirst and Morrell's will unfortunately be laying off a few people. FYI~they're both from Sx. Falls.

[MJ1986]

BankFirst is shutting down.... According to what I read in the paper today.

I didn't hear about Morrells... That's really too bad...

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by MJ1986

BankFirst is shutting down.... According to what I read in the paper today.

I didn't hear about Morrells... That's really too bad...

I'll bet you're right about BankFirst. I just scanned through it and they said that one in Ga. and in Sx. Falls was being hit.

The Morrell's layoff isn't huge. It seems like it said 30 people, but it's still rough if you're one of those 30. Hopefully that's all it'll be and more won't follow later.

[DeadwoodJ]

BankFirst I don't think is gonna close, all there assets were bought by another bank and they'll just rename the bank, when the banks have been failing they don't shut down, just get bought by someone else, kinda like a bankruptcy merger.....Doesn't Morrell's 'lay off' people all the time, they're usually brought back a few weeks later when business picks up I think.....

[maja519]

Originally Posted by Jammie

The Daily Republic | Mitchell, South Dakota

They released the unemployment stats for some of our cities. It looks like things are getting a bit better. Mitchell was nearing 6% on the last report. It may have a bit to do with the fact that summer offers more employment???

Anyway, just wanted to share this with everyone.

Hi Jammie,

I just joined this blog and really can appreciate all the work you seem to be putting into it. I'm looking at a new place to relocate, but it won't be for at least another year. Can you give me some leads on where a person with a BS in biz admin would be able to find work in SF? I think the place looks like a real possiblity. Thanks in advance for any help.