City outlines monthly financials

The Sioux Falls City Council received a presentation on the financial and economic indicators from this past month. The report includes figures such as sales tax collections, unemployment rate, labor force and inflation.

Here are the highlights:

Sales tax collections: 18.8% (12-month rolling average)
The 12-month rolling average (less audits) ended the month at 18.8%. On a year-over-year basis, collections for May 2022 were up 10.1% over May 2021. However, if you take into account the inflationary rate, we are closer to 1.5% growth (which is inline with expectations).

Entertainment tax collections: 27.9% (12-month rolling average)
The 12-month rolling average (less audits) ended the month at 27.9%. On a year-over-year basis, collections for May 2022 were 10.9% above May 2021.

Unemployment: 1.9%
The City of Sioux Falls’ unemployment rate peaked at almost 11% in April 2020 and has since decreased steadily. As of April 2022, we are down to 1.9% which continues to be lower than the state and national unemployment rate.

Employment: Increased to 158,781
Employment numbers for the City of Sioux Falls has steadily grown over the past few years. 3.9% up from last year.

Labor Force: 161,912
Labor force has increased to 161,912 in April. Up 2.8% from last year. Employment is growing faster than labor force which tends to indicate people returning to the labor force.

Inflation: 8.6%
Inflation has increased to 8.6% after a slight downturn last month. This number continues to trend upward. This is the largest increase since December of 1981. Much of the inflation is being driven by the energy sector.

Building Permits: $780 million through May
Through May, the City has processed over $780 million dollars’ worth of building permits. This is significantly outpacing 2020 and 2021 when the City processed $233 and $396 million dollars’ respectively. It should be noted that the City has processed 1,830 multifamily units through May. This is more than double May 2021’s figure and more than three times the number of units processed through May of 2019 and 2020 combined.