Wyoming Unemployment Unchanged in August
by: David Bullard, Senior Economist

"August marks the eleventh straight month that Wyoming's unemployment has been lower than the national average."

Even as U.S. unemployment jumped from 4.5 percent in July to 4.9 percent in August, Wyoming's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent. August marks the eleventh straight month that Wyoming's unemployment has been lower than the national average.

Job growth continued at a relatively rapid pace in Wyoming. Approximately 5,400 jobs were created in August giving the state a growth rate of 2.2 percent. As in recent months, large job growth was seen in oil & gas extraction (2,000 jobs or 20.8%), Services (1,900 jobs or 3.2%) and Retail Trade (800 jobs or 1.6%). U.S. job growth remained at the low level of 0.4 percent mainly because of job losses in Manufacturing and business services.

In Wyoming, small job losses were seen in Manufacturing (-100 jobs or -0.9%), Transportation, Communications, & Public Utilities (-100 jobs or -0.7%) and Federal Government (-300 jobs or -3.7%).

Among Wyoming's 23 counties, the lowest unemployment rate was in Teton County (1.2%). Three other counties had rates below 2.0 percent: Sublette County (1.8%), Albany County (1.8%) and Johnson County (1.8%). Fremont County's unemployment rate (5.2%) was the highest in the state, but down considerably from its August 2000 level of 5.9 percent. Laramie County's unemployment rate (3.2%) was up slightly from its year-ago level of 2.6 percent, while Natrona County's rate fell from 4.0 percent in August 2000 to 3.6 percent in August 2001.

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