In its half-hourly newsblurb yesterday evening, SDPB led the weekly South Dakota unemployment filings report by chipperly stating that jobless claims fell last week to their lowest level since March.
The Bureau of Finance and Management says continuing claims numbered 22,830 in the week ending April 18. South Dakota’s total number of unemployed workers exceeded that number only three times in recent history, during the winters of 2009, 2010, and 2011.
But Senator Ryan Maher (R-28/Isabel) says we can’t trust those numbers, because South Dakota has always made itself look rosier by undercounting the unemployed:
The ability to craft meaningful programs is also hampered by a lack of data collection by government agencies where officials don’t track unemployment by age, gender, race, industry or location.
By excluding people from official employment data, the state is not presenting an accurate picture of overall unemployment to the public and policymakers, said state Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel.
“You’re fudging the numbers; you’re not being truthful about the situation,” Maher said. “They always say South Dakota’s unemployment rate is 2% or 3%, but even before the virus hit, your unemployment rate was probably closer to 10%.”
The lack of good data has “skewed” the state’s ability to accurately track unemployment and fully understand what is happening in the marketplace, said Maher, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“You wonder, what does that population look like that is falling through the cracks and not being tracked?” Maher said [Nick Lowrey, “South Dakota’s Uncounted Unemployed Workers Taking Brunt of COVID-19 Hardships,” South Dakota News Watch, 2020.05.06].
Don’t let happy newsblurb leads fool you: even in good times, South Dakota’s economy is in worse shape than we think.
If these regional states had a functioning governor and agriculture secretary (apologies to Minnesota), they’d embark on a rapid building of sustainable agriculture. Crisis creates opportunity. Toward that end, they’d incentivize and reinforce local meat processing. https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-meat-shortage-leaves-us-204723753.html
The last thing NOem wants is for accurate numbers. The state has lied about covid19, they’ve lied about unemployment numbers, they lie about drunks legislating, they lie about everything. Maher calls them out, but what good will it do with a complacent legislature.
In Spring Creek Community, South Dakota the state account is 3 active cases when in fact there are at least 6 cases there.
“ROSEBUD SIOUX TRIBE, — Rodney M. Bordeaux, the President of Rosebud Sioux Tribe, has declared an immediate lockdown in the Spring Creek Community.
Bordeaux released a Facebook post from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Attorney General’s Office page, stating that the lockdown is a safety precaution due to the high exposure in the community.
He also wrote, “I was was hopeful that we would not have to enforce such a drastic measure as a lockdown, but we must do what we can to protect the rest of our communities.”
According to the post, law enforcement officers and others will be stationed at the roads coming into the community. No one is allowed in or out of the community.
Furthermore, if anyone is feeling symptomatic, they are encouraged to call IHS at 747-0532 or 747-0533 to determine if a test is needed. If the test is needed, IHS will arrange it and law enforcement will be informed so that you can leave.
Right now, tests are only being performed on those who are symptomatic.
Bordeaux also encouraged the members of the community saying, “We are in this together and we will get through this by maintaining social distancing, washing our hands, and wearing our masks.”https://www.newscenter1.tv/rosebud-sioux-tribe-declares-lockdown-due-to-covid-19-community-exposure/
Once more, NOem is failing to do her job of protecting and serving all citizens of the State of South Dakota with the $$$1.25 BILLION DOLLARS set aside for Covid19 funding. Daugaard would’ve done a much better job, we miss that.
It’s not even a little bit surprising that a GOP government is lying about numbers that don’t suit their stories. You can’t plan for or improve on things that you pretend don’t exist. Honest government is of tremendous benefit to the citizens.
Nick Lowery, at South Dakota News Watch, has a very good article up on South Dakota’s fraudulent numbers. It seems we cannot help ourselves in being corrupt with a whole generation of crooks and liars to legislatively learn from. Thankfully there are a few who still stand up against this corruption or we would never know.
” Stacey Twiggs is one of the “uncounted” unemployed people in South Dakota. Twiggs, 35, is a massage therapist from Black Hawk who has seen COVID-19 turn her life upside down. She hasn’t gotten sick, but the pandemic has destroyed her once-thriving business, forced her to live off credit cards and put her in fear of becoming homeless. And yet, Twiggs isn’t counted among the record number of people who are officially listed as unemployed in South Dakota amid the pandemic, and she is not able to obtain unemployment benefits.”
Thanks Senator Ryan Maher, you old renegade, for looking behind the curtain and telling what you see. Now please do something about it. Call a special session.
BTW, It seems like we double count the National Guard and Reserve here as well, to fudge the numbers even further. Nice.