Find a Job You Really Want In
When we normally think of South Dakota things like great hikes and trails, all time best things to do, and good food and home cooking.
But there’s also a strong economy and job market that has been improving in recent years.
Here at Zippia, we like to take a closer look at local economies to understand what jobs and industries are doing better than others. We think this helps job seekers and people thinking of moving to the area for a job know what to expect.
So we set our sights on uncovering the best industries within South Dakota.
After examining all the available data, we arrived at this list of the five best industries for jobs in South Dakota:
Read on to see how we determined which industries rise above the competition to become the best of the best.
If you’re interested, you can read more about the South Dakota job scene here:
How we determined the best industries in the Mount Rushmore State for jobs
We believe that the data never lies or that it at least lies a lot less than any one person’s opinion. So we went on a mission to collect as much data as we could about the South Dakota job market.
At the end of the day, we were able to find the following, relevant criteria for determining the best industries:
- Average Salary
- Job Availability
- Average Stress Level Of Jobs In The Industry
The sources of data include the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Labor.
Stress level is an index created by self reported statistics from people in the industry. We ranked each industry on these from 1 to 22 where 1 was the best.
Finally, we averaged all the rankings together to create a ‘Best Industry’ index. We crowned the industry with the lowest score, Healthcare Practitioners And Technical, as the best industry in South Dakota.
For a detail table of the data, check out the bottom of the post. But now, carry on to learn more about why the various industries are so great for jobs.
Detailed List Of The Best Industries In South Dakota
| Rank | Industry | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Healthcare Practitioners And Technical | $69,230 |
| 2 | Architecture And Engineering | $65,470 |
| 3 | Life, Physical, And Social Science | $54,800 |
| 4 | Education, Training, And Library | $42,210 |
| 5 | Production And Manufactoring | $33,310 |
| 6 | Management | $104,970 |
| 7 | Community And Social Service | $39,590 |
| 8 | Business And Financial Operations | $63,450 |
| 9 | Office And Administrative Support | $30,690 |
| 10 | Computer And Mathematical | $63,930 |
| 11 | Construction And Extraction | $38,300 |
| 12 | Legal | $73,390 |
| 13 | Sales | $37,360 |
| 14 | Farming, Fishing, And Forestry | $28,490 |
| 15 | Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, And Media | $37,980 |
| 16 | Installation, Maintenance, And Repair | $44,560 |
| 17 | Transportation | $32,550 |
| 18 | Personal Care And Service | $24,930 |
| 19 | Building And Grounds Cleaning And Maintenance | $24,990 |
| 20 | Food Preparation And Serving Related | $21,890 |
| 21 | Protective Service | $39,360 |
| 22 | Healthcare Support | $27,500 |
Summing up the best industries in South Dakota
There you have it; Healthcare Practitioners And Technical is the best industry to be in if you live around South Dakota.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Healthcare Support Industry ranks as the worst in South Dakota mostly due to bad pay and scarcity of jobs.

