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Wyoming Labor Force Trends

January 2025 | Volume 62, No. 1


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Growing and Declining Industries in Wyoming, 2024Q2

Article | Tables

by: Laura Yetter, Senior Economist

The Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services publishes quarterly reports on growing and declining industries in Wyoming online at https://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/G_DInd/G_D_Industries.htm. This article provides excerpts and selected data from the full report for second quarter 2024 (2024Q2), which is available at https://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/G_DInd/Report_24Q2.pdf.

A growing or declining industry is defined as an industry’s employment level increasing or decreasing for two quarters by 5% or more over the year based on data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. For example, all industries that grew or declined in employment by at least 5% from 2023Q1 to 2024Q1 and subsequently from 2023Q2 to 2024Q2 were included in the respective tables in this article. Only subsectors with employment sizes of 100 or more were included in these tables.

Industries are defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). For this research, growing and declining industries are determined at the three-digit subsector level.

As shown in Table 1, Wyoming had six growing industries in 2024Q2, accounting for 7.4% of all industries and 6.7% of the state's total employment. Heavy & civil engineering construction grew the most, adding 832 jobs (a 15.1% increase) over the year in 2024Q2 and 823 jobs (19.5%) in 2024Q1 (see Table 1). On average, this industry subsector added 828 jobs, an increase of 17.3%. The other growing industries were construction of buildings (an average increase of 317 jobs, or 6.5%); amusements, gambling, & recreation (289, or 10.1%); administration of economic programs (188, or 6.3%); electrical equipment & appliance manufacturing (103, or 24.0%); and computer & electronic product manufacturing (25, or 7.3%).

There were eight declining industries in 2024Q2, accounting for 9.9% of all industries and 1.9% of the state's total employment. As shown in Table 2, the greatest decline was seen in support activities for transportation, with an average loss of 239 jobs, or 11.9%. Other declining industries included furniture, home furnishings, electronics, & appliance retailers (-78, or -5.9%); plastics & rubber products manufacturing (-62, or -14.1%); performing arts & spectator sports (-51 jobs, or -10.1%); and publishing industries (-45, or -6.3%).

It is worth noting that 2024Q2 marked the first time that Wyoming had more declining industries than growing since 2021Q1 during state's most recent economic downturn.

During periods of economic expansion, the number of growing industries is greater than the number of declining industries. During economic downturns, there are far more declining industries than growing.