The State of Gig Economy in South Dakota. Statistics and Trends [2022]

The sales and receipts from the gig work in South Dakota have increased over 43% in the last decade. Read along to get more insights on the trends for the rise of the freelance, independent and gig work in South Dakota.
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Updated Dec 10, 2022

The rise of the industrial economy in the 70s had the working population in South Dakota strive to get a full time job with an employer and show up for work. It has been the norm for decades, but if we study the shift in employment statistics closely, there is a big revolution in the making.

The working population in South Dakota is currently witnessing a post-industrial shift into a self dependent economy. Gen Z doesn’t want to fit in the industrial complex and look for flexibility and satisfaction in their job. 

How big is the gig economy workforce in South Dakota?

25% of the small business workforce in South Dakota work as independent workers.

Comparative analysis of gig economy and employment datasets for small businesses suggest a dramatic shift in how working population in South Dakota work: 25% of the small business workforce work as independent workers. In South Dakota there are 68,801 self employed gig workers ( freelancers and contractors ) compared to 208,353 salaried employees in small business payroll ( firms with less than 500 employees).

The gig economy workforce of self employed independent contractors, freelancers, also identified as non employer firms are becoming an important factor in South Dakota. As per the current 2019 NES ( released on June 30, 2022) there are 68,801 gig businesses in South Dakota, up from 60,211 in 2010. 


Year No. of gig workers Receipts ($billion)
2010 60,211 2
2011 61,356 3
2012 61,973 3
2013 62,414 3
2014 63,384 3
2015 64,006 3
2016 65,222 3
2017 66,713 3
2018 68,405 3
2019 68,801 3
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This increase in the gig worker population can be safely related to increase in employment opportunities created by the rise of online platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, TaskRabbit.

Which industries contribute the most to the gig economy in South Dakota?

The sector " Real Estate and Rental and Leasing " contributed the most whereas the lowest contribution came from Utilities sector.

We aim to look at the distribution of gig economy workforce across broad 17 industry levels as defined under NAICS. As per the current 2019 NES ( released on June 30, 2022), there are 7 sectors with more than 5,000 gig workers. The sector " Real Estate and Rental and Leasing " contributed the most with the number of gig workers as 9,478. The lowest contributor to the gig economy was the Utilities sector with just 58 gig workers across South Dakota. The number of gig "businesses" according to the respective industry sectors is exhibited in the table below.


Industry Gig workers in 2010 Gig workers in 2019 Growth Growth (%)
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 6,721 9,478 2,757 41
Transportation and Warehousing 2,890 4,530 1,640 57
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 3,662 5,192 1,530 42
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 5,657 7,159 1,502 27
Retail Trade 7,126 8,328 1,202 17
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 3,118 4,183 1,065 34
Educational Services 1,629 1,979 350 21
Construction 7,312 7,650 338 5
Accommodation and Food Services 967 1,174 207 21
Manufacturing 881 1,045 164 19
Finance and Insurance 2,810 2,921 111 4
Information 614 650 36 6
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 70 84 14 20
Utilities 58 58 0 0
Wholesale Trade 874 841 -33 -4
Health Care and Social Assistance 5,216 4,742 -474 -9
Other Services (except Public Administration) 8,702 6,478 -2,224 -26
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The next important thing to analyze is change in the gig economy workforce across different industries over the last decade. This analysis will help us determine the true drivers in the rise of gig economy in South Dakota. Analysis of the data suggests that the biggest driver in the gig economy across South Dakota is the Real Estate and Rental and Leasingsector. The number of gig workers increased by 41% from 6,721 in 2010, increasing to 9,478 in the data from the current reference year NES 2019. 

For the same time period, the biggest loss of 2,224 was witnessed in the Other Services (except Public Administration) sector. The overall decline in this sector over the last decade was at 26%, witnessing a decrease to 6,478 ( in 2019 ) from 8,702 ( in 2010).

The change in the number of gig "businesses" according to the respective industry sectors over the data analysis of last 10 reference years in NES is exhibited in the table below.

Exhibit 1


County Gig workers in 2012 Gig workers in 2019 Growth Growth (%)
Minnehaha 12,520 14,613 2,093 17
Lincoln 4,118 5,498 1,380 34
Pennington 7,711 9,022 1,311 17
Lawrence 2,320 2,741 421 18
Meade 2,040 2,413 373 18
Union 1,276 1,514 238 19
Codington 2,073 2,245 172 8
Davison 1,390 1,512 122 9
Brown 2,696 2,804 108 4
Brookings 2,005 2,108 103 5
Yankton 1,586 1,668 82 5
McCook 454 518 64 14
Gregory 472 526 54 11
Hamlin 424 476 52 12
Roberts 586 638 52 9
Sully 165 205 40 24
Butte 903 940 37 4
Fall River 585 620 35 6
Dewey 256 286 30 12
Tripp 536 566 30 6
Aurora 231 258 27 12
Stanley 308 334 26 8
Mellette 94 116 22 23
Perkins 257 279 22 9
Douglas 252 272 20 8
Haakon 204 223 19 9
Sanborn 183 201 18 10
Deuel 372 388 16 4
Hyde 104 120 16 15
Ziebach 59 75 16 27
Charles Mix 665 678 13 2
Spink 500 513 13 3
Bennett 167 179 12 7
Harding 163 175 12 7
Turner 777 788 11 1
Clay 851 861 10 1
Hanson 313 323 10 3
Grant 620 629 9 1
Faulk 209 217 8 4
Jerauld 169 176 7 4
Campbell 134 139 5 4
Hand 311 315 4 1
Hutchinson 562 566 4 1
Walworth 486 490 4 1
Kingsbury 507 510 3 1
Jones 109 110 1 1
Beadle 1,074 1,073 -1 0
Buffalo 43 41 -2 -5
Edmunds 370 368 -2 -1
McPherson 209 206 -3 -1
Marshall 351 346 -5 -1
Miner 209 204 -5 -2
Clark 274 267 -7 -3
Corson 146 135 -11 -8
Custer 912 901 -11 -1
Jackson 194 183 -11 -6
Potter 248 237 -11 -4
Day 502 490 -12 -2
Moody 426 413 -13 -3
Brule 486 470 -16 -3
Lyman 249 229 -20 -8
Todd 247 208 -39 -16
Hughes 1,490 1,447 -43 -3
Bon Homme 484 433 -51 -11
Lake 990 895 -95 -10
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Which counties contribute the most to the gig economy in South Dakota?

The top 5 counties have 50.40% of the entire 68,801 gig workforce

Looking at the county distribution for the gig economy workers across South Dakota, the top 5 counties have 50.40% of the entire 68,801 gig workforce.

On the other hand the lowest contributing locations contribute approximately 0.67% of the state level gig workforce with 462 gig workers in total among them.


As expected, the top counties with the most number of gig workers are also the counties with the highest growth percentage of gig workers over the last decade. The best growth achieved is by Minnehaha county, where the number of gig workers increased 17% from being 12,520 in 2016 to 14,613 in 2019 ( the latest reference year for NES as per the release on Jun 30 2022).


Growth in gig economy across all of the counties in South Dakota over the last decade

Who does gig work and what are the demographic profile of gig economy workers in South Dakota?

Across South Dakota, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 38,000 compared to 26,000 female workers

Across South Dakota, the gig work runs through every demographic profile criteria. As some of the the gigs such as delivering packages, food, driving passengers have low entry barriers work has a low barrier to start with, a lot of younger and population that is not economically established tend to take up these gigs more than the rest of population.

To get more details, we analyzed the most current Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics. We found that across South Dakota, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 38,000 compared to 26,000 female workers.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by gender, in South Dakota

The distribution on the basis of ethnicity was stark and the number of non hispanics in the gig workforce stood at 66,000 compared to 1,200 workers with ethnicity as hispanic.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by ethnicity, in South Dakota

On the basis of race the number of gig workers from the white population was found to be 65,000 compared to the 750 from black and 650 asian population.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by race, in South Dakota


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Neilsberg Research
Neilsberg Research team are data scientists with expertise in processing, analysis and visualization of big data helping small businesses make right decisions.

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