How many people are laid off in South Dakota each month?
Updates published monthly
About 5,000 in March 2025. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
5K
people were laid off or discharged in South Dakota in March 2025
17K
layoffs and discharges in South Dakota in 2025 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 73,000 layoffs and discharges a year in South Dakota. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2025, layoffs and discharges total 17,000 in South Dakota, which is equivalent to the same period in 2024.
In South Dakota, layoffs were the same by March 2025 than by March 2024.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in South Dakota, seasonally adjusted
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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South Dakota’s layoff rate decreased between February and March 2025.
Seasonally adjusted US and South Dakota monthly layoff and discharge rates, Dec. 2000–Mar. 2025
In March 2025, 1.1% of people employed in South Dakota were laid off or discharged, a lower rate than February. Compared to the national numbers, the March 2025 rate in South Dakota was higher, meaning a higher share of the South Dakota working population was laid off or dismissed in March 2025 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In March 2025, South Dakota’s 12-month average layoff rate was higher than the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and South Dakota, Nov. 2001–Mar. 2025
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. South Dakota’s 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US rate in June 2009 and 0.2 percentage points lower in May 2020.
As of March 2025, South Dakota’s 12-month average layoff rate was higher than the US overall. At 1.2%, South Dakota’s average layoff and discharge rate was the same compared to one year prior (April 2023–March 2024 average). The rate increased 0.2 percentage points compared to two years prior (April 2022–March 2023 average).
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
