# Counties in South Dakota by covered employment (QCEW), 2025

All 66 values come from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2025, so the places are comparable.

- Indicator id: `covered_employment`
- Unit: jobs
- Definition: Average number of jobs covered by unemployment insurance during the year, all industries, private and government, from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Counted where the job is located, from the reports employers file each quarter; monthly employment counts the jobs in the pay period that includes the 12th.
- Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average employment, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties (https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2025/a/industry/10.csv)
- Publisher page: https://invokely.ai/en/publishers/bureau-of-labor-statistics
- Retrieved: 2026-10-12
- Citation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average employment, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2025/a/industry/10.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/rankings/covered-employment/south-dakota-counties

| Rank | Place | jobs |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | Minnehaha County | 139,772 |
| 2 | Pennington County | 62,445 |
| 3 | Lincoln County | 30,502 |
| 4 | Brown County | 19,589 |
| 5 | Brookings County | 19,542 |
| 6 | Codington County | 17,187 |
| 7 | Lawrence County | 13,691 |
| 8 | Yankton County | 12,862 |
| 9 | Davison County | 12,474 |
| 10 | Hughes County | 10,733 |
| 11 | Union County | 9,566 |
| 12 | Meade County | 9,206 |
| 13 | Beadle County | 8,524 |
| 14 | Clay County | 6,112 |
| 15 | Lake County | 5,142 |
| 16 | Oglala Lakota County | 3,808 |
| 17 | Grant County | 3,744 |
| 18 | Charles Mix County | 3,461 |
| 19 | Roberts County | 3,420 |
| 20 | Butte County | 2,921 |
| 21 | Todd County | 2,837 |
| 22 | Hutchinson County | 2,775 |
| 23 | Hamlin County | 2,703 |
| 24 | Custer County | 2,690 |
| 25 | Moody County | 2,552 |
| 26 | Fall River County | 2,506 |
| 27 | Turner County | 2,423 |
| 28 | Spink County | 2,371 |
| 29 | Dewey County | 2,348 |
| 30 | Tripp County | 2,329 |
| 31 | Walworth County | 2,065 |
| 32 | Day County | 1,966 |
| 33 | Brule County | 1,947 |
| 34 | Kingsbury County | 1,767 |
| 35 | Bon Homme County | 1,680 |
| 36 | Marshall County | 1,675 |
| 37 | Gregory County | 1,573 |
| 38 | Jerauld County | 1,553 |
| 39 | Deuel County | 1,530 |
| 40 | Hand County | 1,430 |
| 41 | McCook County | 1,404 |
| 42 | Lyman County | 1,346 |
| 43 | Stanley County | 1,327 |
| 44 | Edmunds County | 1,231 |
| 45 | Clark County | 1,205 |
| 46 | Perkins County | 1,076 |
| 47 | Douglas County | 1,050 |
| 48 | Bennett County | 844 |
| 49 | Haakon County | 834 |
| 50 | Aurora County | 801 |
| 51 | Potter County | 797 |
| 52 | Miner County | 777 |
| 53 | Corson County | 755 |
| 54 | Sully County | 692 |
| 55 | Jackson County | 691 |
| 56 | Faulk County | 668 |
| 57 | Sanborn County | 626 |
| 58 | Hanson County | 623 |
| 59 | McPherson County | 554 |
| 60 | Hyde County | 546 |
| 61 | Buffalo County | 530 |
| 62 | Harding County | 453 |
| 63 | Campbell County | 411 |
| 64 | Jones County | 407 |
| 65 | Mellette County | 336 |
| 66 | Ziebach County | 251 |