Western South Dakota News

Pennington County recorded an unemployment rate of 2.9% among residents aged 16 and 65 years old in 2021. That’s 1,636 people out of the 108,707 living in Pennington County at the time, according to data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The unemployment rate in Pennington County has decreased compared to the 4% registered in 2020.

The percentage of people unemployed in Pennington County was less than the statewide unemployment rate of 3.2%.

Of the 54,759 people who had a job during that time, 815 were employed in the Armed Forces and 53,944 belonged to the civilian labor force.

Employment status	Number of people	Percentage of population
Unemployed	1,636	2.9%
Employed	54,759	97.1%
Employed in civilian labor force	53,944	95.7%
Employed in armed forces	815	1.4%