The cynical among us might wonder why scores of businesses offering high paying jobs are not racing to the state, but it's #SmallBusinessWeek, so criticizing Governor Noem for celebrating a meaningless statistic seems to be bad form.Did You Know… South Dakota has been consistently ranked as a top state to do business, largely due to our favorable tax environment and limited regulatory system. #SmallBusinessWeek— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) May 8, 2019
Today, Axios points out that automation will likely wreck havoc on jobs in the Midwest.
Axios concludes, "To absorb the coming disruption, the government and corporations will have to take charge of reskilling and upskilling huge swaths of displaced workers."
- A quarter of all jobs across the U.S. have high chance of being wiped out by automation.
- The five states with the highest share of at-risk jobs are Indiana (29%), Kentucky (29%), South Dakota (28%), Arkansas (28%), and Iowa (28%) — all of which went for President Trump in 2016.
But the extent of the hit to middle America is even clearer when zooming in to the county level.
- Compare that to the bottom five: New York (20%), Maryland (20%), Massachusetts (21%), Connecticut (22%) and New Mexico (22%), all of which went for Hillary Clinton.
- For example, in Jerauld County, South Dakota, 53% of jobs are hanging in the balance.
- 48% of jobs are vulnerable in Scott County, Miss.; 48% in Dakota County, Neb.; and 46% in Colfax County, Neb.[emphasis mine]
There's little hope that corporations concerned about only the bottom line will bring jobs to a state that needs a quarter of its workforce retrained unless the state is willing to help shoulder the cost of retraining. Over the past few sessions, the South Dakota legislature spent more time arguing about useless resolutions, placing the national motto in schools, civics classes, guns, and chislec than it has about funding K-12 education. There's less hope that legislators or Governor Noem will suddenly decide to fund the retraining of workers.
