We’ve heard President Joe Biden brag about the 12 million jobs created since the beginning of his Presidency, more than have been created during any previous President’s entire tenure. Biden’s claim is both numerically and causally dubious. But whatever President Biden may be doing to promote higher-than-usual job creation, it appears to be working in South Dakota as well, despite Governor Kristi Noem’s best efforts to insulate South Dakota from the nefarious effects of Bidenism.
According to the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, South Dakota saw 18,616 more people go to work from December 2020 to December 2022. That’s more job growth than seen during the third and fourth years of the gubernatoriats of Dennis Daugaard, M. Michael Rounds, or Bill Janklow (the 90s edition).
| Years 3-4 | starting jobs | ending jobs | added jobs | % new jobs | average annual job growth |
| Janklow (Dec 1996–Dec 1998) | 374,977 | 386,265 | 11,288 | 3.01% | 1.49% |
| Rounds | 407,596 | 420,285 | 12,689 | 3.11% | 1.54% |
| Daugaard | 425,778 | 432,926 | 7,148 | 1.68% | 0.84% |
| Noem | 444,915 | 463,531 | 18,616 | 4.18% | 2.07% |
A lot of the job growth of the last two years comes from the pandemic-schmandemic bounce-back. South Dakota’s job creation under President Biden is thus somewhat surprising in that we did not shed as many jobs proportionately when coronavirus hit as the rest of the nation. Since South Dakota wages are so low and so few South Dakotans can afford not to work, job growth remained positive in South Dakota during Noem’s first two years in Pierre, though notably lower than the job growth than the first two years of her predecessors’ reigns:
| Years 1-2 | starting jobs | ending jobs | added jobs | % new jobs | average annual job growth |
| Janklow | 365,945 | 374,977 | 9,032 | 2.47% | 1.23% |
| Rounds | 401,226 | 407,596 | 6,370 | 1.59% | 0.79% |
| Daugaard | 418,591 | 425,778 | 7,187 | 1.72% | 0.85% |
| Noem | 441,733 | 444,915 | 3,182 | 0.72% | 0.36% |
Historically, job creation during Noem’s first term was better percentagewise than job creation during the first terms of Daugaard and Rounds but not quite as good as Janklow’s in the 1990s:
| Years 1–4 | starting jobs | ending jobs | added jobs | % new jobs | average annual job growth |
| Janklow | 365,945 | 386,265 | 20,320 | 5.55% | 1.36% |
| Rounds | 401,226 | 420,285 | 19,059 | 4.75% | 1.17% |
| Daugaard | 418,591 | 432,926 | 14,335 | 3.42% | 0.85% |
| Noem | 441,733 | 463,531 | 21,798 | 4.93% | 1.21% |
But if Noem can keep riding the Biden job-creation wave (and if Nikki Haley doesn’t kill it), Noem is on pace to post higher annual job growth in South Dakota than Daugaard, Rounds, and Janklow were able to drive during their full eight-year terms:
| total | starting jobs | ending jobs | added jobs | % new jobs | average annual job growth |
| Janklow (Dec 1994–Dec 2002) | 365,945 | 401,226 | 35,281 | 9.64% | 1.16% |
| Rounds (Dec 2002–Dec 2010) | 401,226 | 418,591 | 17,365 | 4.33% | 0.53% |
| Daugaard (Dec 2010–Dec 2018) | 418,591 | 441,733 | 23,142 | 5.53% | 0.67% |
| Noem (Dec 2018–Dec 2022) | 441,733 | 463,531 | 21,798 | 4.93% | 1.21% |
So if you buy into the idea that the Executive Branch puts much push behind job creation, you can cheer President Biden for generating a job-creation wave that even Governor Noem can’t stop.
A large number of working class people is nothing to brag about unless the main focus of the leadership is getting the protected class to increase working class wages and lifestyle. It
Communism always has full employment. They give the most violent third a rifle and everyone else a shovel.
Red states are begging to get minimum wage lowered and , also, to allow more kids to work those low wage jobs. Out of curiosity, how many migrant workers will it take to care for 25k dairy cows under one roof? Wake the hell up, Noem. The migrants are coming to help build and then work at new cafo.
The pubs will kill the economy this year by not raising the debt limit. They have it in the bag.