Wyoming’s Unemployment Continues to Decrease as Tax Revenue Rises
According to a release by the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information, jobs and revenue in Wyoming have been increasing over the past year as COVID-19 cases have recently begun to decline.
In February, jobs increased by 10,700, or 3.9%, over the same time last year, with the unemployment rate continuing to decrease, down to 3.7%, compared to the U.S. as a whole at 3.8% in February.
The increase in jobs came mostly from the construction, which represents 8% of jobs, and the leisure and hospitality industries, representing 13% of jobs, which each saw an increase of 2,900 and 3,500 jobs respectively.
State and local governments, which have the biggest share of jobs at 21%, saw the biggest decrease of 400 jobs in February 2022 compared to the same time last year.
Since July 2021, the number of sales and use tax collections are 8.8% higher across that time period than at the same point in 2021 and 2020, with severance tax collection 75.5% higher during that time period.
The most recent data for Wyoming's severance tax in March was almost $80 million, the highest it's been in several years, though state-wide sales and use taxes are close to where they've been in previous years, at a little over $60 million in March, compared to $55 million in the fiscal year 2020 and $51 million in 2021.
In terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Wyoming has been falling behind the U.S. and the Rocky Mountain region since 2020, as GDP grew 4.6% at the end of 2021 compared to the previous quarter, while the U.S. and Rocky Mountain regions were at 6.9% and 6.2% respectively.