South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation

A summer night in Deadwood. (Photo by Travel South Dakota)

Sioux Falls man loses insurance and gaming licenses after alleged $1.5 million fraud

BY: - June 13, 2023

A Sioux Falls man who lost his insurance license for an alleged $1.5 million fraud that affected more than 600 South Dakota student athletes has also lost his gaming license.  At its Tuesday meeting in Deadwood, the South Dakota Commission on Gaming revoked Gary Aaron King’s personal gaming license. King was a member of multiple […]

Tina Lugo, left, shakes hands with Kendra Ringstmeyer of the Department of Labor during a graduation ceremony for Department of Corrections precision machining graduates on May 8, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Prison-based training program bolsters South Dakota workforce

BY: - May 11, 2023

There are nearly 3,500 people in the custody of South Dakota’s prisons. Most of them will walk free.  In the space of a year and a half, the state has trained and certified 57 of them in precision machining, welding and construction technology – three high-demand fields in South Dakota. The latest group of graduates, […]

Gov. Kristi Noem talks about apprenticeship programs on April 25, 2023, at Howe Inc. in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Noem touts $7.9 million investment in apprenticeships as part of workforce shortage solution

BY: - April 25, 2023

SIOUX FALLS — Employers willing to build or expand apprenticeship programs in South Dakota will soon have a shot at a larger pool of state funding. During a stop Tuesday at Howe Inc., Gov. Kristi Noem announced the addition of $7.9 million in apprenticeship grants to be distributed over three years through the Start Today […]

Amazon Public Relations Manager Scott Seroka explains a sorting system during a tour of the company's Sioux Falls fulfilment center on Feb. 16, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Gov. Noem touts record low unemployment; also presided over the highest

BY: - February 16, 2023

By two measures, Gov. Kristi Noem has presided over South Dakota’s lowest – and highest – unemployment rate. One of those metrics is the number of tax forms sent in January to those who’ve received certain kinds of government assistance in the previous year. That assistance includes things like agricultural payments, taxable grants or unemployment […]

Kimberlee Browne watches as metal is sheared off the top of a metal block at Lake Area Technical College's precision machining lab in Watertown on Jan. 20, 2023. Through a new training program, Brown earned a certificate in machining while she was incarcerated at the Women's Prison. (J.T. Fey/for South Dakota Searchlight)

From prison to a payroll: Program trains inmates as machinists

BY: - January 27, 2023

Kimberlee Browne thought she’d die on the streets. The 40-year-old mother of six and former educator has been in and out of the South Dakota prison system twice since 2012. Each time she was released, something would happen to make her lose her confidence and faith; she’d fall back into bad habits and be arrested, […]