Bucking horse and rider

Wyoming Department of Workforce Services

Research & Planning
444 W. Collins Dr.
Suite 3100
Casper, WY 82601
(307) 473-3807

Email link

"Labor Market Information (LMI) is an applied science; it is the systematic collection and analysis of data which describes and predicts the relationship between labor demand and supply." The States' Labor Market Information Review, ICESA, 1995, p. 7.

2022 Wyoming Workforce Annual Report

The Federal Government reserves a paid-up, nonexclusive and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish or otherwise use, and to authorize others to use for federal purposes: i) the copyright in all products developed under the grant, including a subgrant or contract under the grant or subgrant; and ii) any rights of copyright to which the recipient, subrecipient or a contractor purchases ownership under an award (including but not limited to curricula, training models, technical assistance products, and any related materials). Such uses include, but are not limited to, the right to modify and distribute such products worldwide by any means, electronically or otherwise. Federal funds may not be used to pay any royalty or license fee for use of a copyrighted work, or the cost of acquiring by purchase a copyright in a work, where the Department has a license or rights of free use in such work, although they may be used to pay costs for obtaining a copy which is limited to the developer/seller costs of copying and shipping. If revenues are generated through selling products developed with grant funds, including intellectual property, these revenues are program income. Program income must be used in accordance with the provisions of this grant award and 2 CFR 200.307.

Wyoming Labor Force Trends

July 2022 | Volume 59, No. 7


Click Here for PDF

Return to Table of Contents

Growing and Declining Industries in Wyoming, 2021Q4

Article | Tables and Figures


by: Michael Moore, Research Supervisor

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. At the time of this publication, data were available from second quarter 2001 (2001Q2) to fourth quarter 2021 (2021Q4).

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 2020Q3 to 2021Q3 and subsequently from 2020Q4 to 2021Q4 were included in the respective tables in this article. Only subsectors with employment of 100 or more are included in the growing and declining industries for Wyoming.

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.

Overall, Wyoming had 21 growing industries in 2021Q4, which accounted for 25.0% of all industries and 24.6% of the state's total employment (see Table 3). Table 1 shows the 10 industries with the greatest average over-the-year percent change in 2021Q3 and 2021Q4. For example, computer & electronic product manufacturing grew at over-the-year rates of 55.6% in 2021Q3 and 50.0% in 2021Q4, for an average rate of 52.8%. This industry added an average of 106 jobs per quarter. The average rate of change for all growing industries was 11.6%. The full list of growing industries is available here.

There were four declining industries in 2021Q4, which made up 4.8% of all industries and 4.1% of the state's total employment. As shown in Table 2, declining industries included oil & gas extraction (-18.7% average change), petroleum & coal products manufacturing (-10.5%), nursing & residential care facilities (-10.4%), and administration of economic programs (-9.6%).

The average weekly wage is calculated by dividing total wages for a particular subsector by the total number of jobs and the number of weeks in the observed quarter. In 2021Q4, the average weekly wage was $973 for growing industries and $1,454 for declining industries (see Table 3). Overall, the state's average weekly wage was $1,141.

During periods of economic expansion, the number of growing industries is much greater than the number of declining industries. For example, the number of growing industries in Wyoming peaked at 26 in 2006Q3 and 2006Q4, compared to three and five declining industries, respectively.

But during economic downturns, there are far more declining industries than growing industries. R&P has defined an economic downturn as a period of at least two consecutive quarters of over-the-year decrease in average monthly employment and total wages based on data from the QCEW. Over the last 20 years, Wyoming has experienced three periods of economic downturn: 2009Q1-2010Q1, 2015Q2-2016Q4, and 2020Q2-2021Q1. During the most recent economic downturn, which was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and declining energy prices, Wyoming had 37 declining industries in 2020Q3 compared to just three growing industries.