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 30 of 36| Employer | City | Industry | Grade | Avg TCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aah Hme | Sioux Falls | Medical equipment and suppli | A | 1.6 |
| WTN | Watertown | Manufacturing | A | 1.6 |
| Dakota Fluid Power, Inc. | Sioux Falls | Hydraulic hose fittings, flu | A | 1.6 |
| Avera Health Avera Mckennan Hospital | Sioux Falls | Hospitals, general medical a | A | 1.6 |
| C & B Operations Corsica | Corsica | Agricultural machinery and e | B | 1.6 |
| Tower Systems Inc. | Watertown | Communication tower construc | B | 1.5 |
| Lake Preston Soil Center | Lake Preston | Fertilizer and fertilizer ma | B | 1.5 |
| SD,SIOUX FALLS - Business Center - Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices | Sioux Falls | Corporate, Subsidiary, and R | F | 1.5 |
| Wurth Electronics Midcom Inc. | Watertown | Transformers, electronic com | A | 1.5 |
| Dakota Automation | Watertown | Woodworking machines (except | A | 1.5 |
| Fareway Stores, Inc. 192 Tea | Tea | Grocery stores | A | 1.5 |
| RENEW Energy SDFS | Sioux Falls | Electrical generating and tr | B | 1.5 |
| Quality Quick Print | Aberdeen | Offset printing (except book | A | 1.5 |
| Polaris Inc. Spearfish | Spearfish | Motorcycles and parts manufa | A | 1.5 |
| Billion Kia of Rapid City | Rapid City | Automobile dealers, new only | A | 1.5 |
| Panther Graphics LLC | Sioux Falls | Offset printing (except book | A | 1.5 |
| Ridley Block Operations - Whitewood | Whitewood | Animal feed mills (except do | A | 1.4 |
| Huron Store | Huron | Construction and Mining, exc | B | 1.4 |
| Interbake foods NSC | North Sioux City | Bakery products, dry (e.g., | A | 1.4 |
| Washington | Bryant | Dairy cattle farming | A | 1.4 |
| Vermillion Distribution Center | Vermillion | Private warehousing and stor | A | 1.4 |
| Big Stone Plant | Big Stone City | Electric power generation, f | C | 1.4 |
| Mitchell SD Truss | Mitchell | Engineered Wood Member Manuf | A | 1.4 |
| 00394-SR62 | Sioux Falls | Furniture stores (e.g., hous | A | 1.4 |
| StarMark Cabinetry | Sioux Falls | Cabinets, kitchen (except fr | A | 1.4 |
| Pssi / Demkota Ranch Beef | Aberdeen | Building Maintenance Service | A | 1.4 |
| Avera Dells Area Hospital | Dell Rapids | Hospitals, general medical a | A | 1.4 |
| RENEW Energy SDRS | Sioux Falls | Electrical generating and tr | B | 1.4 |
| Sioux Falls SD - Algonquin | Sioux Falls | Folding paper and paperboard | A | 1.4 |
| SD,Sioux Falls-Pentagon-Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events with Facilities | Sioux Falls | Performing arts center opera | A | 1.4 |
| Terex - Canton | Canton | Concrete finishing machinery | A | 1.4 |
| Sturdevant Companies - Corporate | Sioux Falls | Motor Vehicles, parts and su | A | 1.4 |
| Mills Construction Inc | Brookings | Addition, alteration and ren | A | 1.4 |
| Avera Health Avera Queen of Peace Campus | Mitchell | General medical and surgical | A | 1.3 |
| Filtration : Yankton | Yankton | Other motor vehicle parts ma | A | 1.3 |
| Avera Plaza 1 | Sioux Falls | Physicians' (except mental h | A | 1.3 |
| SD,Clear Lake-Medical Center-General Medical And Surgical Hospitals | Clear Lake | General medical and surgical | A | 1.3 |
| Billion Toyota Scion | Sioux Falls | Automobile dealers, new only | A | 1.3 |
| North American Truck & Trailer | Sioux Falls | Truck trailer merchant whole | B | 1.3 |
| Fareway Stores, Inc. 178 Harrisburg | Harrisburg | Grocery stores | A | 1.3 |
| FPC Yankton | Yankton | Correctional institutions | A | 1.3 |
| Spartronics Watertown LLC | Watertown | Printed circuit assemblies m | A | 1.3 |
| Salem Mennonite Home | Freeman | Assisted-living facilities w | A | 1.3 |
| DGS Aviation Services : ABR - Aberdeen | Aberdeen | Support Activities for Air T | A | 1.3 |
| Wooden Mallet Inc | Aberdeen | Furniture, office-type, padd | A | 1.2 |
| Swy-0005-0005-01554 Fac-01554-Rapid City-Sd | Rapid City | Supermarkets and Other Groce | A | 1.2 |
| Harlow's School Bus Service - Sturgis | Sturgis | School bus services | A | 1.2 |
| RNDC Sioux Falls | Sioux Falls | - | B | 1.2 |
| Forum Communications Printing | Sioux Falls | Periodicals commercial print | A | 1.2 |
| Bell Incorporated | Sioux Falls | Cartons, folding (except mil | A | 1.2 |
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.