State profile · OSHA ITA
South Dakota workplace safety
How 1,778 OSHA-reporting employers across South Dakota compare on workplace injuries, 2016–2024.
- 1,778
- Employers
- 6.4
- Avg TCR
- 36,517
- Injuries
- 23
- Fatalities
The state picture
South Dakota's reporting employers average 6.4 recordable injuries per 100 workers, 2.4 times the ~2.7 all-industry private-sector norm.
- 6.4
- avg TCR · per 100 workers
- 1,778
- employers reporting
- 36,517
- recordable injuries
- 23
- worker fatalities
State average reflects each state's industry mix. Sort the table below by each employer's own grade against its industry benchmark.
32% of South Dakota's reporting establishments earn an F and 10% an A, each measured against its own industry benchmark, not the state line. These grades are a transparent derived index, not an official OSHA rating; see the Methodology for the exact formula.
Where South Dakota ranks among states
54 states & territories by avg TCRSouth Dakota's average TCR of 6.4 is lower than 15% of states, a state average reflects industry mix as much as workplace safety.
A second cut tells a different story: ranked by injury rate alone, South Dakota is #46 of 54. Ranked instead by fatalities per employer establishment, it's #30 of 54, a 16-place swing. A state can run a moderate everyday injury rate while its rarer, most severe incidents cluster differently; the two metrics measure different things and shouldn't be read as interchangeable.
How South Dakota Workplaces Compare
South Dakota hosts 1,778 employer establishments currently reporting to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application. These are not small shops: federal rules require ITA submission from workplaces with 250+ employees in any industry, plus workplaces with 20+ employees in the roughly 60 NAICS codes classified as high-hazard (construction, manufacturing, healthcare, warehousing, agriculture, and others). Across this South Dakota cohort, workers have logged 36,517 recordable injuries, producing a state average Total Case Rate (TCR) of 6.4 injuries per 100 full-time workers per year during 2016–2024.
The state has recorded 23 workplace fatalities in the reporting window, which is tracked separately from non-fatal injury counts because fatal events have their own investigation trail under 29 CFR 1904.39. Reading state-level TCR requires context: the headline figure is driven by a state's industry mix. A state with a heavy construction, logging, or meatpacking footprint will mechanically post higher TCR than a state dominated by finance or professional services, even when individual employers are equally well-managed. That is why the employer table below sorts each establishment by its own TCR and letter grade, against the BLS benchmark for its specific industry, not against the state average.
For jobseekers, relocators, investors, and local safety professionals, state-level pages function as an entry point: use the grade-sorted list to spot the safest and highest-risk employers in South Dakota, then click through to an individual establishment for its year-by-year injury, illness, DART, and fatality trajectory. Compare multiple years before drawing conclusions, a single outlier year can reflect a specific event, whereas a sustained pattern across reporting cycles is a more reliable risk signal. All data comes directly from employer-submitted OSHA Form 300A summaries. State OSHA plans in 22 states operate their own enforcement programs in parallel, but the injury data above is harmonized through the federal ITA system.
Employers in South Dakota, by injury rate
Page 19 of 36| Employer | City | Industry | Grade | Avg TCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen (Sdabe) | Aberdeen | Courier Services Except by A | B | 4.8 |
| St. Mary's Hospital | Pierre | General medical and surgical | B | 4.8 |
| Unit #0211 | Sioux Falls | Retail | D | 4.8 |
| 4865 | Sioux Falls | Warehouse Clubs and Supercen | D | 4.8 |
| 49 RCT Belle Fourche | Belle Fourche | Bottles, plastics, manufactu | D | 4.8 |
| JDS Industries | Sioux Falls | 423990 | F | 4.8 |
| Freedom Enterprises | Watertown | General freight trucking, lo | C | 4.8 |
| CC&F Retail, Inc (dba Friendly's Fuel Stop, Baltic) | Baltic | Gasoline stations with conve | D | 4.8 |
| Harrold, SD | Harrold | Bird feed, prepared, manufac | D | 4.7 |
| C & B Operations Roscoe | Roscoe | Agricultural machinery and e | F | 4.7 |
| SealPros Inc | Harrisburg | Asphalt paving (i.e., highwa | D | 4.7 |
| Edgewood Wtn Cedar View | Watertown | Assisted-living facilities w | D | 4.7 |
| 2540 - Sioux Falls East | Sioux Falls | Discount Department Stores | D | 4.7 |
| 2024 Coborn's Huron -SD | Huron | Retail Grocery | D | 4.7 |
| Fresh Ideas Management- Dakota Wesleyan University | Mitchell | Cafeteria food services cont | D | 4.7 |
| Sioux Falls T & M | Sioux Falls | Specialized Freight (except | C | 4.7 |
| Pomp's Tire - Sioux Falls 060 | Sioux Falls | Tire dealers, automotive | D | 4.7 |
| Agronomy Sciences LLC dba Hefty Seed Company | Baltic | Pesticides, agricultural, me | F | 4.7 |
| Prairie Lakes Healthcare | Watertown | General medical and surgical | B | 4.7 |
| South Dakota Partners Inc | Clear Lake | Electromedical equipment man | D | 4.7 |
| CRM Plant 301 | Watertown | Ready-mix concrete manufactu | D | 4.7 |
| Shopko Store #76 (Sioux Falls, SD (South)) | Sioux Falls | Department Stores | D | 4.7 |
| Rapid City Service Center | Rapid City | Distribution of natural gas | F | 4.6 |
| Aberdeen Energy, LLC | Mina | Ethanol, nonpotable, manufac | D | 4.6 |
| Kessler's Inc | Aberdeen | Grocery stores | D | 4.6 |
| WATERTOWN_1386617 | Watertown | Mail and Parcel Delivery | C | 4.6 |
| RDU, LLC dba Boyds Hardwood Gunstocks | Mitchell | Applicators, wood, manufactu | D | 4.6 |
| Worthington Industries Watertown | Watertown | Cabs for construction machin | D | 4.6 |
| Montgomery's - Sioux Falls Store | Sioux Falls | Furniture and appliance stor | D | 4.6 |
| Sodexo at Prairie Lakes Healthcare-Es | Watertown | Building Cleaning/Maintenanc | C | 4.6 |
| 6400-Swy 0005 0581 | Rapid City | Supermarkets and Other Groce | D | 4.6 |
| Runnings of Madison | Madison | General stores | D | 4.6 |
| Amazon.com Services LLC - WSD1 | Sioux Falls | Couriers and Express Deliver | B | 4.6 |
| American Baptist Homes of the Midwest DBA Trail Ridge Senior Living | Sioux Falls | Retirement homes with nursin | B | 4.6 |
| Avera Weskota Memorial Hospital | Wessington Springs | Hospitals, general medical a | B | 4.6 |
| Gettysburg Main | Gettysburg | Farm Supplies Merchant Whole | F | 4.6 |
| F.M. Acoustical Tile Inc. | Sioux Falls | Acoustical ceiling tile and | D | 4.6 |
| Terex - Huron | Huron | Construction machinery manuf | D | 4.5 |
| Sioux Falls Clubhouse | Sioux Falls | Hotels (except casino hotels | D | 4.5 |
| Morris, Inc. | Fort Pierre | Asphalt paving (i.e., highwa | D | 4.5 |
| BCI Sioux Falls, SD | Sioux Falls | Boxes, corrugated and solid | D | 4.5 |
| HHM. LLC DBA HGI- Downtown | Sioux Falls | Management and public relati | D | 4.5 |
| Aberdeen, Sd | Mobridge | Other Grocery and Related Pr | F | 4.5 |
| Belle Fourche | Belle Fourche | Food service contractors, ca | D | 4.5 |
| Manitou Group Madison SD | Madison | Construction machinery manuf | D | 4.5 |
| Coteau des Prairies Hospital | Sisseton | Hospitals, general medical a | B | 4.5 |
| 2024 Coborn's Huron | Huron | Retail Grocery | D | 4.5 |
| Whitewood - 1340 | Whitewood | Wood Preserving | D | 4.5 |
| 43291z - North Sioux City | North Sioux City | Confectionery Merchant Whole | F | 4.5 |
| Brandon | Brandon | Grain and Field Bean Merchan | F | 4.5 |
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
What South Dakota's safety record means for you
South Dakota averages a TCR of 6.4 - about 2.4× the ~2.7 national private-sector norm. A state average hides wide employer-by-employer variation.
- Look up a specific South Dakota employer rather than relying on the state average. Look up an employer
- Compare this state against the rest of the country. All states
- Understand what the average TCR actually measures before you read it. Understand the rates
State averages use the credible-subset mean across reporting establishments; they are statistical summaries, not regulatory assessments.
Every figure and grade on PlainSafetyScore is computed directly from OSHA's published Injury Tracking Application data and BLS industry benchmarks, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these safety grades, or report a data error. Data current as of 2016-2024 OSHA ITA release.