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© Copyright 1993 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning
Finding a job is complicated these days, and keeping a job in today’s competitive job market is often just as difficult. Gone are the days when a U.S. high school graduate could walk away from graduation exercises, trade a diploma for a time card at the local industry, and be assured of a lifetime of job security with growing wages and benefits. This new reality hit parts of the United States over a decade ago when many lost high paying jobs in heavy manufacturing.
A similar reality has hit Wyoming in the last decade in the coal mining industry. Employment has fallen while mine production has climbed dramatically. Manual labor jobs have taken the hardest hit as the coal industry invested in equipment and technological process improvements, and proceeded to produce more coal with fewer people. A high percentage of people still employed in mining have jobs which involve monitoring or operating computers and other equipment--jobs which demand, at a minimum, vocational education specific to the equipment operated.1
An increasing number of jobs require some sort of training beyond high school. An educated workforce is one primary consideration of companies when they locate a new facility. Industries vary according to what they consider to be the target educational level, and they will be attracted to specific communities based on this labor force data. Community and state economic development groups in Wyoming should be very interested in citizens' educational levels and access to education. Educational access and attainment are intrinsic to diversifying Wyoming's economy.
Figures from the 1990 Decennial Census indicate that people in Wyoming are slightly ahead of the average U.S. citizen in gaining education beyond high school. National statistics used in this article are from a U.S. Bureau of the Census report based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) responses collected in Spring 1990.2
A number of people did not answer the 1990 Census question asking for number of years of education. It appears that more women than men in Wyoming did not answer this question, but information distributed by the U.S. Census Bureau to the states does not allow for a detailed accounting. There is no way of knowing how the people who did not answer this question would shift the data pattern.
Figure 1 shows that males in Wyoming who have not completed high school or received a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) comprised 11.7 percent of the male population aged 20 and over. The U.S. figure for males aged 18 or over without a high school diploma or GED was 20.6 percent (see Figure 2). The difference in sample age groups would cause the U.S percentage to run higher than the Wyoming percentage, but it is doubtful that this difference would explain the entire percentage variation. The comparable figures for Wyoming and U.S. females were 9.7 and 21.1 percent respectively.
The counties in Wyoming with the highest percentage of people without a high school diploma tend to be agricultural counties. These counties also have a high percentage of people 65 and over, so it seems likely there is a correlation between the age and educational attainment of these senior citizens. It was much more common thirty to fifty years ago for people to go to work or marry without finishing high school.
Looking at the other end of the education scale, Wyoming is close to the national percentages for people of both sexes who have completed a degree beyond the bachelor’s degree.
As Figure 1 and Figure 2 show, Wyoming has some demographic differences from the rest of the nation in regards to educational attainment. Wyoming males lead in categories with no high school diploma and high school diploma only, two categories that nationally have a higher proportion of females than males fitting the description. Also nationally, the proportion of males achieving a bachelor's degree is larger than the proportion of females, but not so in Wyoming. This may be due to Wyoming's historical abundance of high paying jobs in mining and mineral services, jobs which often require little education.
People from Wyoming, especially women, are above the national averages in achieving some education beyond a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree. When all categories with more education than a high school diploma are added, the proportion of Wyoming women with education beyond high school is 57.8 percent compared to a national figure of 41.6 percent. Comparative figures for males are 54.0 (Wyo.) and 45.4 (U.S.) percent.
State data support the idea that many people in Wyoming are seeking education beyond high school. Figures from the Office of Institutional Analysis at the University of Wyoming show some decline in enrollments, both full and part time, since 1989. Statistics collected by the Wyoming Community College Commission on enrollments show a 51.9 percent increase in full time students in the last ten years. Part-time students have not been tracked over this length of time.
What are the benefits of getting an education? In "What's it Worth?"2 national statistics support the time-honored belief that education is well worth the investment. The Table lists different educational attainments for females and males with associated monthly earnings and months worked during a four month period.
One thing is immediately clear from the Table. Men work a higher percentage of time than women at all levels of education except that of a doctorate degree. The average percentage of time worked will be affected by the fact that some working mothers may not wish to work full time while they raise children. But many women today actually want or need more constant work and more hours of work. Education appears to help women gain some control over their work schedules.
The Table does not allow wage comparisons by sex since there are no part-time and full-time break- outs.
The Table also discloses that when each educational level is compared to the next higher level, earnings are consistently 75 to 80 percent of those at the higher level, with two major exceptions.
People with no high school diploma earn less than 50 percent of the amount those who have graduated from high school earn. Graduating from high school is obviously a major step toward earning a living.
People with a high school education earn between 84 and 87 percent of what people with some college and vocational training earn. These levels of educational advancement show the least amount of improvement over the educational level directly below them. The real improvement in earnings and amount of time worked occurs at the associate’s degree level.
Earnings and percent of time worked do not tell the whole employment story. They serve as indicators of job security, satisfaction, and adaptability. Education and employment skills training are becoming increasingly important in re-training and preparing for a newly specialized job market.
Economic development and the overall health of Wyoming's economy are contingent upon adapting to a changing job market. Wyoming cannot choose to overlook these changes; industries and workers in Wyoming have been and are being affected. Individuals trained or educationally trainable in computers and new technologies will be the ones to find and keep jobs most easily. People with jobs will return more frequently for training in order to maintain their employment.
People are having--and more will have--multiple jobs or careers in their lifetimes. It is in the best interest of people, businesses, and communities to operate on the reality that education is a lifetime pursuit. These figures suggest that people in Wyoming are moving in the right direction.
1 "Technological Change and Its Impact on Labor in Four Industries: Coal Mining," U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oct. 1992, Bulletin 2409
2 "What's it Worth? Educational Background and Economic Status: Spring 1990," Kominski, R. and Sutterlin, R., U.S. Department of Commerce, Current Population Reports, Series P70-32, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1992.
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