SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - Pierre did not see legislation last session that specifically dealt with finding more employees for state businesses.
President of the state Chamber of Commerce Dave Owen says any workforce developments this year will have to come from the private sector.
Owens says there's a limit to what government, as a collective group, can do. He thinks more labor answers will be sought locally.
Owen says answers will have to come by thinking out of the box. He says some answers will come through immigration, trying to attract workers to South Dakota.
Some of it deals with housing. He thinks a lot of it will be taken on with rules, regulations and zoning. But Owen doesn't think "there's an easy mechanical fix available to statewide government."
Last November, South Dakota voters approved a constitutional amendment setting up an independent board to oversee the state's tech schools and Owen says that will be a major boost.
He says it's a good idea because the people who are going to have the authority over tech institutes programs are going to be the people who are going to hire they're graduates, so we'll now have a focused, institutional way for new industries to come in and say "we need this kind of training, so the institutions can say, we can deliver that."
South Dakota's unemployment rate hovers at just under 3%. There are some 12,000 jobs listed on the labor department website.
(Thanks Jerry Oster, WNAX Yankton)