Need work? South Dakota needs you

Those unemployed in the country are being encouraged to brave the harsh winters of South Dakota for the promise of employment.

With the third lowest unemployment rate in the nation — only 4.5 percent compared to the national 8.3 percent in January — South Dakota is looking to recruit skilled workers from outside the state.

Stateline, a nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States, reports a partnership, pursued by governor Dennis Daugaard, between South Dakota and the recruitment firm Manpower to find workers for the state.

"If we are to grow our state's economy faster than the birth rate, we will need to look beyond our borders," reads the website of the initiative named 1,000 New South Dakotans.

The job strategy, which includes a $5 million up-front investment, is popular in South Dakota's Republican-led legislature.

While manufacturing work continues to decline in the rest of the country, some South Dakota factories are reportedly prohibited from expanding because of the shortage of skilled labor.

According to the Gallup Job Creation Index, there are eight states where workers report companies are hiring.

North Dakota ranks first with the highest job-creation rate in the country. Not only does the northern state have the lowest unemployment rate in the country (3.3 percent) but housing prices have increased the most in the nation (16.8 percent) since the third quarter of 2006 and two in five residents report their employers are hiring.