South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation

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, […]