Wyoming's largest economic sector has taken a nosedive in recent years with the crash in oil, coal, and natural gas prices, but the August Wyoming Insight report from the Economic Analysis division shows things may be starting to stabilize.
According to the report, the unemployment rate has stayed at 5.7 percent since June.
“Both natural gas price and oil price have been rising,” said state economist Wenlin Liu. “That’s a good signal. And another sign we have been seeing is that the unemployment insurance claim has been flattening.”
However, Liu said Wyoming’s economy could stay at this low point for some time before significantly recovering.
“It’s demand, supply. Right now you know that demand supply rebalancing is continuing,” said Liu. “Of course, nobody knows how long it’s going to take, maybe one year, two years, three years.”
He said if this winter is colder than last year that could help in the recovery, since that will create more demand for electricity to heat homes, and generating that electricity involves burning more coal and natural gas.
Overall, Wyoming lost 9,800 jobs in the last year.
