A new report from the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information shows that sales tax numbers last spring dropped dramatically in both mining and lodging.
State Economist Dylan Bainer said when coupled with unemployment, Wyoming's economic health index was the lowest it has been since the measurement was developed in 2005.
"It's still a good chunk lower than it's been...than it ever was in the last 15 years. So during any of the mining downturns or the recession of '08, we're still worse off," said Bainer.
He said things have improved greatly over the past couple of months, but added it'll be awhile before things return to normal.
"I don't know any reason or any signs as to why that would be an instant recovery with how hard we've been hit in terms of unemployment and things like that," said Bainer. "It's going to take awhile for everything to come back."
The June unemployment rate was 7.6 percent after falling to 9.6 percent in April. When compared to June of 2019, sales tax collections for mining were down 67 percent and collections from the lodging sector were down 46 percent.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Bob Beck, at btwo@uwyo.edu.
