"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.
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Welcome!
Welcome to the newly redesigned Wyoming Labor Market Information website of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services' Research & Planning section.
Research & Planning (R&P) is an exclusively statistical entity within the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services that collects, analyzes, and publishes timely and accurate labor market information (LMI) meeting established statistical standards.
The goal of our website redesign is to provide Wyoming Labor Market Information in a format that is faster, more user-friendly on all devices and accessible to all. We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions about the redesign and any ideas about ways to improve our website. You can contact us via e-mail to DWS-RESEARCHPLANNING@wyo.gov, by calling us at (307) 473-3807, or via mail to Research & Planning, PO Box 2760, Casper WY 82602.
Welcome to the 2020 edition of the Wyoming Workforce Annual Report, produced by the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services in partnership with the Wyoming Workforce Development Council. This report provides an overview of Wyoming’s economy and workforce. Topics covered in this report include:
R&P Publishes Weekly Unemployment
Insurance Claims Data
Construction Drives Wyoming Job Growth
in 2019
Wyoming Sees Small Population Increase
in 2019
Wyoming Labor Force Increases in 2019
UI Benefit Exhaustion Rate Drops to Historic Low in 2019
Increase of Nonresident Workers Continues
in 2019
Wyoming Projected to Add Nearly 3,000
New Jobs by 2021
An Introduction to Colorado-Wyoming
Commuting Patterns
Wyoming Employers Add More than
90,000 New Hires in 2018
Percent of Workers Offered Medical
Insurance Continues Decline
R&P Offers Licensed Occupation Directory
and Dashboards
Wyoming Occupational Fatalities Increase
to 31 in 2018
Wyoming’s Nonfatal Occupational Injury
and Illness Incidence Rate Essentially
Unchanged in 2018
Wyoming’s Changing Retail Trade Industry
Tracking Coal Miners Into the Labor Force
After Job Losses
Initial Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims dropped by nearly half from April to May 2020 in Wyoming. However, continued claims increased by 43.6% over the month and 990.1% over the year.
May marked the third straight month of unusually high UI claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic and substantial declines in the prices of oil & gas.
Wyoming had 10,722 initial claims in May, down from 20,485 in April but up from 1,241 in May 2019. Prior to March 2020, the one-month high for initial claims in Wyoming dating back to 1997 (the first year for which comparable data are available) was 5,709 in October 2009.
The unclassified industry had the most initial claims in May, followed by leisure & hospitality, trade, transportation, warehousing, & utilities, and natural resources & mining. Over the year, initial claims increased across all major industries.
Total continued weeks claimed reached 95,769 in May, the largest total since comparable data were collected beginning in 1997. The previous record high for one month in Wyoming was 80,239 in October 2010 during the state's economic downturn that began during the national Great Recession.
There were 25,409 unique continued claimants in May compared to 22,189 in April.
The Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported that the
state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from its revised level of 9.6% in April to 8.8% in May. It appears that the state’s economy improved modestly in May as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were loosened and some businesses reopened. At 8.8%, Wyoming’s unemployment rate was significantly lower than the U.S. rate of 13.3%.
Most county unemployment rates fell from April to May, perhaps suggesting small scale improvement in labor markets around the state.
Wyoming Employment and Payroll: Solid Job Growth in Third Quarter 2019
In recent weeks, Wyoming’s economy has seen many layoffs and other disruptions related to the coronavirus. This report focuses on employment and wage growth between third quarter 2018 and third quarter 2019, well before the current disruptions began. It describes Wyoming’s economic situation in late summer 2019 and provides detail by industry and county.
From third quarter 2018 to third quarter 2019, Wyoming added 5,030 jobs (1.8%) and its total payroll increased by $200.8 million (6.1%).
A growing industry is defined as one that shows over-the-year growth in average monthly employment for two consecutive quarters. In 2019Q4, Research & Planning (R&P) identified eight growing industries in Wyoming, including electrical equipment and appliance manufacturing, heavy & civil engineering construction, and plastics and rubber products manufacturing, among others.
A declining industry is one that shows over-the-year decline in average monthly employment for two consecutive quarters. R&P identified 11 declining industries in Wyoming 2019Q4, including air transportation, food manufacturing, and crop production.
The Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services conducts the Wyoming Benefits Survey on a quarterly basis. This survey is designed to collect information about the types of benefits Wyoming employers offer their employees.
This publication examines the prevalence of employer-provided benefits such as medical insurance, retirement plans, and paid leave in Wyoming during third quarter 2018. These benefits are analyzed in several ways: by full- and part-time employment status, employer size class, industry, and by Wyoming substate region.
Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) in Wyoming
NEW: Statewide, Regional, County, and MSA Data (estimates for Wyoming wages for May 2018 data updated to the September 2019 ECI Employment Cost Index).
See note about wage updating used to calculate estimates.
Includes lookup tools by occupation, printable PDFs for each licensed occupation, links to O*Net detailed descriptions, and comparison of wages for the U.S. and Wyoming.
In 2017, Wyoming employers added an estimated 88,561 new hires: individuals who, during a particular quarter, started working for an employer he or she had not worked for since at least 1992, the first year for which R&P has wage records.
The New Hires Survey allows R&P to collect rich survey detail not previously available, such as occupation, rate of compensation, benefits, important job skills, employer satisfaction with a new hire’s skills, retention, and more. By linking New Hires Survey data to existing administrative databases, such as Unemployment Insurance Wage Records and Wyoming Department of Transportation driver’s license files, R&P is also able to identify new hires characteristics such as age and gender.
The Directory of Licensed Occupations in Wyoming 2019, compiled by the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, provides detailed information about license requirements and related information for the 97 occupations required to have a license by the state of Wyoming. Forty-five licensing boards oversee the administration and enforcement of these licenses.
Requiring practitioners of some occupations to be licensed results in the assurance that these workers have a minimum level of education and competency, and also generally results in higher wages for workers in those occupations compared to those in many unlicensed occupations.
Demographics and Earnings of Persons Working in Wyoming by County, Industry, Age, & Gender, 2000-2018
Each year, the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services publishes detailed information on earnings and employment by industry and county of employment. The numbers of individuals working in each industry or county are based on employers’ quarterly wage and employment reports to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services; these are referred to as wage records. Any individual who had wages in Wyoming at any time from 2000 to 2017 is included in the summary counts presented in this research. Each individual is counted only once.
By linking the Wage Records database with other administrative databases, such as the driver’s license file from the Wyoming Department of Transportation, R&P is able to identify demographic information for each county and industry, including number of persons working, average annual wages, average number of quarters worked, and average number of employers.
Presented by Tony Glover, Manager, and Michael Moore, Editor, of the Research & Planning section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services to the Wyoming Interim Joint Labor, Health, & Social Services Committee, June 13-14, 2019, Cheyenne, WY
R&P offers new series of Labor Market Information webinar videos
Hosted by Research & Planning Senior Economist Katelynd Faler, the webinars cover a variety of Labor Market Information topics based on questions we've received from the public. Topics include:
Wyoming is projected to add more than 5,000 jobs from 2018 to 2020, according to the most recent short-term projections from the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
A Study of the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women in Wyoming:
Update 2018
In 2017, the Wyoming joint labor, health, and social services interim and the joint minerals, business, and economic development interim committees requested the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services complete a study on the state’s gender wage gap (House Bill 0209). This report is an update to a similar report published in 2003.
Wyoming Long-Term Industry and Occupational Projections, 2016-2026
The latest long-term projections from the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services show growth from 2016-2026. The industry projections suggest that the state will experience a net growth of 25,894 jobs (9.4%) over the 10-year period.
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Wyoming at Work