The Bureau of Economic Analysis finds that the economy grew in every state in the last quarter of 2016:
South Dakota lost its sizzle from Quarter 3, slowing from 7.1% quarterly growth to 1.1%.
South Dakota’s last quarter was a slowdown from our year-long pace. Throughout 2016, our GDP grew at 1.7%, tops among our adjoining states and slightly better than the flaccid national rate of 1.5%:
Industries driving the most growth were information services; professional, scientific, and technical services, and health care and social assistance. The big sinkers—North Dakota, Alaska, and Wyoming—went negative largely because of weakness in mining; however, mining grew 5.2% in the fourth quarter, explaining North Dakota’s year-end rebound over South Dakota.
Interestingly, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting provided the single largest chunk of 2016 GDP growth for South Dakota, followed by health care and construction. Our sandbags for the year were manufacturing and mining:
| Sector | Contribution to percent GDP change, 2015–2016 |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting | 0.51 |
| Health care and social assistance | 0.31 |
| Construction | 0.26 |
| Government | 0.19 |
| Retail trade | 0.17 |
| Wholesale trade | 0.14 |
| Professional, scientific, and technical services | 0.12 |
| Utilities | 0.11 |
| Information | 0.11 |
| Finance and insurance | 0.11 |
| Management of companies and enterprises | 0.09 |
| Other services, except government | 0.03 |
| Accommodation and food services | 0.01 |
| Administrative and waste management services | 0.00 |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | -0.01 |
| Transportation and warehousing | -0.02 |
| Educational services | -0.03 |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | -0.04 |
| Mining | -0.09 |
| Nondurable-goods manufacturing | -0.11 |
| Durable-goods manufacturing | -0.20 |
| Total GDP Change | 1.66 |
Good analysis. Does the SD new minimum wage law affect these figures at all? Just wondering.
Fair question, Mr. Sol! No linkages yet. Last month I reported on a much longer trend in decreased youth employment that appears to predate the minimum wage increase here. I’d say likewise with GDP decreases: Thomas Piketty makes the case (along with many other economists) that we’re headed toward an era of GDP growth lower than 3% due to factors much larger than the minimum wage.
Oh right, the more it costs, the more you’re still willing to buy, so blame it on something else. Doesn’t hold water.