The rest come from the surrounding towns of Belle Fourche, Whitewood and Rapid City. Pennington County Employers doing business in Pennington County have an 81 percent resident workforce. This is down from the Census survey by almost seven percent. The rest of the Pennington County workforce comes from surrounding counties, mainly Meade, Lawrence and Custer. The biggest difference between the 1990 Census and this study is a decline in the number of Meade County residents and an increase in the number of Lawrence County residents who commute to work for a Pennington County employer.
Interstate transportation plays a big part in the commuting patterns for Rapid City employers.
The majority of Rapid City businesses have employees that live and work in the city. Fourteen percent of the commuters into Rapid City live near I-90. Almost five percent reside in Black Hawk. Over three percent commute from Box Elder, Piedmont, Sturgis and Ellsworth AFB each supply about two percent. Codington County Employers operating in Codington County have fewer residents working for them than they did years ago.