SD low unemployment.. why? (Rapid City: low crime, how much, job market)

[natepickle]

Hello,

I find myself looking for a job and i've noticed that the midwest appears to have low unemployment when compared to the rest of the country.

Why is the unemployment so low in the mid west? Is it because there isnt that many people there?

Are there jobs there and people just dont like the lifestyle?

Jim

[airboat5]

I wont say its easy to find work here. but theres some work and lots of people going to head to head for those jobs. as for people not rushing here my friends down south rather starve than move here and put on a jacket in the winter.I hope this helps a little.where are you at now?

[natepickle]

Virginia

What do you mean they would rather starve and put on a jacket?

[LadmoFan]

Just a guess but most people would much rather be living where it's warm rather than face snow, ice, etc. Rapid City and the surround area maybe the Banana Belt but it still receive its share of bad weather. The weather just isn't as bad as other parts of the state.

[DannyBanany]

The midwest has low unemployment compared to the coasts because we are not overpopulated, there is a lot of industry, and people really have nothing else to do but work. In Virginia, maybe you have noticed that when a high position is open they usually give it to someone from the midwest because they know they are hard-working and reliable.

And yes, Rapid City has the nicest overall weather for South Dakota.

[Jammie]

HI Nate, I just read a couple of your other posts so I'll just slip that right in here.

As far as if this is the place for you~it's very possible. Common-sense, hardworking, family oriented people are what our state is looking for. From another post, it appears that this may be the state for you and your family. And I'm sorry to hear about the surgeries and recent problems you've had.

As far as why our state is unpopulated, I think a few people hit it on the head. Our winters aren't very pleasant.

As far as our low unemployment rate, we've been fortunate. Maybe there's been some diverse planning on the part of some people and that has helped. Maybe we've just been blessed, for the moment anyway. Although our population has grown a bit, we've never had a huge influx of people so the jobs have mainly stayed with our own state residents.

So actually our winters are a HUGE deterrent. I've read posts from people who have been jobless for months and it seems they'd rather remain that way then move into this region. Many of them have never been here so their thoughts may be skewed, but we DO have winter here. Our low crime rates, beautiful scenery, peaceful living, available employment, reasonably priced housing, etc. may make up for that to some of us. For others it may not so it actually just comes down to one's preferences.

[DeadwoodJ]

What part of Virginia are you from? I'm orginally from there myself, my dad was a Marine at Quanitco, and we still have friends in the Richmond and Baltimore/Washington D.C. areas.....I love it out there, I would love to move back to Virginia if I were to find a great job out there.....Unemployment is low out here for a variety of reasons, I think one of the reasons is that the cost of living is so much lower so people don't have to hold out for higher paying jobs when they get laid off or fired, another may be that people stay for long periods of time at the same location....hope that helps a little bit.

[jazzlover]

I will make a rather generic comment here--not specific to South Dakota, but pertinent to most all of the Plains states aside from from their few large metropolitan areas. The reason unemployment is frequently so low is there are relatively few jobs. Huh? Here is the explanation: in most of the rural Plains states there a relatively few jobs, and even fewer that pay decently--so, most of the young people who grow up in these areas have to leave to find work elsewhere. When they do so, they are no longer counted in the local jobless statistics. Voilà!--low unemployment percentages. The local folks who do have jobs tend to hold on to them, so there is not much turnover. That means the job market is stable, but often pretty unwelcoming to someone--especially a young person--trying to find a job. Check the age demographics of most Plains communities and you will see what I mean--not many people in most of them in the age group of about 20 to 55 years old. Also, particularly in the smaller communities, there can be a strong unspoken bias toward hiring local candidates for available jobs, too. That's partly because the local candidate (or his or her family) is already a known quantity to the local employer. That often means that the only jobs filled from outside the area are for jobs with specialized qualifications that there no local candidates qualified to take, or jobs at the very bottom of the barrel.

The proof in the pudding is the number of people from all of those smaller communities originally who wind up living in the megalopolises like Denver, Minneapolis, etc. Some of them moved to those big cities because they wanted to, but a lot more of them because they had to in order to make a living. I've known more people in that position in this region than I can count, including a bunch of my own relatives who grew in small towns in the Dakotas.

[DannyBanany]

Jazzlover that's very true. It's surprising how much lower jobs pay in the plains states compared to coasts and cities, but then cost of living is dirt cheap too. It's kind of a timewarp issue, I think. Haha!