Wyoming’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest point since January 2009 when the economic downturn began to affect the state. It’s now at 4.4 percent. This time last year, it was 5 percent. The national unemployment rate is 7 percent.
Senior Economist at the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, David Bullard, says that although this month’s progress is good news, job growth could still be improved. “The job growth has been very slow, well under one percent,” he says. “That presents a challenge to the state’s economy.”
Bullard says that Wyoming’s sluggish job growth is due to low natural gas prices, which have led to fewer jobs in the energy sector.