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Low unemployment rates don't necessarily equate to "all the jobs that people want and can afford to make a living at are readily available".
The difference in Wyoming compared to many states with much higher unemployment rates is that economic survival in Wyoming is a much more difficult matter to achieve. With a harsh climate and long distances between amenities and necessities for much of the population, if folk don't have a job that pays a living income .... they move on to states where it's easier to live, perhaps into a temperate climate where a long winter isn't a survival proposition. There's a lot of states where all the social welfare programs and readily available free access to recreation and entertainment are adequate to sustain a good standard of living, but Wyoming isn't one of them. Those places are where folk can add to the unemployment rolls and yet still survive economically ... virtually indefinitely.
As it is, the gov't plays games with the Unemployment numbers by disqualifying folk who have either given up looking for a job or have run out of UI benefits from the numbers. The "true" unemployment figures for many states are far higher than the calculated/publicized number, trying to make the administration look better for all of the money they've spent on "stimulus" ... which, for the most part, went to public sector jobs of a temporary nature.
Low unemployment rates don't necessarily equate to "all the jobs that people want and can afford to make a living at are readily available".
The difference in Wyoming compared to many states with much higher unemployment rates is that economic survival in Wyoming is a much more difficult matter to achieve. With a harsh climate and long distances between amenities and necessities for much of the population, if folk don't have a job that pays a living income .... they move on to states where it's easier to live, perhaps into a temperate climate where a long winter isn't a survival proposition. There's a lot of states where all the social welfare programs and readily available free access to recreation and entertainment are adequate to sustain a good standard of living, but Wyoming isn't one of them. Those places are where folk can add to the unemployment rolls and yet still survive economically ... virtually indefinitely.
As it is, the gov't plays games with the Unemployment numbers by disqualifying folk who have either given up looking for a job or have run out of UI benefits from the numbers. The "true" unemployment figures for many states are far higher than the calculated/publicized number, trying to make the administration look better for all of the money they've spent on "stimulus" ... which, for the most part, went to public sector jobs of a temporary nature.
Good points, sunsprit. I was responding to the comment "job market is terrible" in WY, which it certainly isn't. And you are right, the "true" unemployment figures may be higher, for all states.
Good points, sunsprit. I was responding to the comment "job market is terrible" in WY, which it certainly isn't. And you are right, the "true" unemployment figures may be higher, for all states.
In view of the very few employment "want ads" in the local Cheyenne paper ... typically, a half-page or less ... the job market here isn't very strong. After seeing years of multiple pages of employment ads, it's pretty weak for new hires. Consider that Cheyenne, at one of the two largest population centers in the state has so few jobs available ... and that the extractive business "boom towns" in Wyoming aren't leading with a lot of job ads, either ... Casper's want ads are pretty thin, too. The Star-Tribune has lots of pages for real estate ads and merchandise, but few jobs posted. Reading the local papers for Cody, Gillette, Lander ... don't have many ads, either.
I wouldn't call it "terrible", but it's certainly not a good employment marketplace right now, either.
What compounds the problem is that a lot of the available jobs aren't paying a living wage in their respective local economies. It takes a two-earner household to be able to just get by in a lot of these places; many folk don't or can't do that for a variety of reasons.
Many jobs aren't advertised in the Casper. Companies are having job fairs, one just this last Monday, because they are hiring so many people for the energy industry. Douglas Budget has numerous want ads for good paying jobs, as well as our local hospital currently has 12 jobs advertised on their website.
I agree that most good-paying jobs are not advertised in the local newspaper. A relative who works in job service says it's because the number and quality of applicants is too huge through the want-ads. He says most companies advertise with them because they can screen them down.
Many jobs aren't advertised in the Casper. Companies are having job fairs, one just this last Monday, because they are hiring so many people for the energy industry. Douglas Budget has numerous want ads for good paying jobs, as well as our local hospital currently has 12 jobs advertised on their website.
I agree that most good-paying jobs are not advertised in the local newspaper. A relative who works in job service says it's because the number and quality of applicants is too huge through the want-ads. He says most companies advertise with them because they can screen them down.
The "aren't advertised in the Casper" local paper because the response is "too huge through the want-ads" speaks directly to two issues:
1) the perception that Wyoming isn't necessarily welcoming to outsiders for jobs
2) that the available labor/employee pool here is adequate to fill the few available jobs (number and quality of applicants is too huge!)
which is why the Wyoming unemployment rate now is relatively low.
It's a lot different than some years past with the boom times where anybody with a pulse could show up in the AM at a prospective employer with good paying jobs available ... not advertised ... and be on the clock the very same day. I experienced this type of employment economy years ago in Colorado when I was a relatively new auto tech ... when circumstances suggested that I shouldn't stay with a given employer, I was able to pack my tools up on one day and have my choice of several other jobs at higher pay the very next day. Since I didn't have a secure place to store my toolboxes, I was under a lot of pressure to find another shop to leave them at the same day ... and I was always able to do so. I was hired in some shops before I'd ever even filled out the required job application, the management was so happy to have a new hire ready to go to work; the market was so strong that I could count on doing this if I wasn't happy at my new employer. Happened more than once that I found a better job within a couple of months and either asked for a pay raise or was down the road with my toolboxes again.
I would also suggest that there's a difference in the resident labor pool here in Wyoming:
as I have related in prior posts, my Dad worked for a major defense contractor back in CA for awhile. In addition to his other responsibilities, he was assigned a state mandated labor pool hiring task: to hire gov't subsidized trainees as entry level technicians. All you had to do was be unemployed (or underemployed) and show up for the program. It was marketed in the LA Times with a column long ad describing the program, benefits, wages ... all very handsome. The program gave you your toolbox and tools for the job. The subsidy paid the company for the new hire (a sliding scale for two years ... 100% subsidy decreasing over the term of apprenticeship) and paid for the classroom time and on the job training to the company. There were company-wide openings for several hundred people under the program. In two years that my Dad ran the program, they had only a couple of applicants! Of those, only two passed the pre-employment drug testing ... and that was after they lowered the standard for a drug test to allow a lot of common street drugs to be acceptable. Of the two who actually started the program ... all you had to do was show up to work, clock in, and be on the premises for the shift ... no actual work product required of the trainees ... both quit within a couple of months because showing up to work, on time, every day ... was just too overwhelming to do for a well above average technical wage (with full medical, dental, vision, retirement, vacation and sick days benefits package ... all paid for by the program and the company). CA's got a very high unemployment rate ... here was a "gimme" program that employed a number of technicians and trainers to assist those who could qualify for the training, which essentially only required that you have a pulse and show up reasonably straight to do your work .... and in two years, they couldn't get applicants, let alone folks who would stick with the program. Why? Because it was just as easy to "get by" on all the social welfare programs in CA and not have to be anywhere or do anything. Ah ... forgot to mention ... that the folk hired for this program also received transportation expenses to show up to work; literally, a voucher for free public transportation or, if that wasn't feasible, vouchers for a taxi ride to the plant from their home.
I remember my Dad being incensed one day when he'd checked in on the progress of the trainees that day. They were sitting around, obviously under the influence of some drug(s) or alcohol (forbidden in or on the plant grounds), with the boom box blasting some very offensive noise (music?) into the plant. It was disturbing to the workers around them, and my Dad went to the HR department to see what could be done about the goofing off. Nothing! they were on the trainee program and they didn't have any accountability for work product or showing progress in their training, and they weren't held to the same standards of performance or conduct as the other workers because this was a program targeted to minorities to get them off welfare or the streets.
That's the day that my Dad tendered his resignation to the company and sought other engineering work (which he found the next week) because they wouldn't release him from the program responsibilities. These were high 5-figure technical jobs with a demand in the local marketplace; the two-year graduates could leave the company and find ready employment anywhere within the region with their tools and skills ... if they completed the program with no obligation to the company that had hired and trained them for the career path. It wasn't hard work, either ... I've seen 8th grade kids in school shops do this level of work.
Imagine this type of give-away work program in Wyoming? Not. There's too many people with a lot better work ethic and pride around here than to blow off this type of opportunity ... then and now ... willing to accept a reasonable wage and to buy their own tools and to be productive.
The "aren't advertised in the Casper" local paper because the response is "too huge through the want-ads" speaks directly to two issues:
1) the perception that Wyoming isn't necessarily welcoming to outsiders for jobs
2) that the available labor/employee pool here is adequate to fill the few available jobs (number and quality of applicants is too huge!)
Sorry for the misconception; what I meant is that people who aren't qualified (like don't have a CDL) apply for truck driving jobs through the want ads. Job service screens them out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit
It's a lot different than some years past with the boom times where anybody with a pulse could show up in the AM at a prospective employer with good paying jobs available ... not advertised ... and be on the clock the very same day.
I liked your analogy, sunsprit. But honestly, in both Converse and Campbell counties, many companies are saying that if you can pass a drug test, you got a job. Nearly every high school student here who wants a summer job has one....as we still have Help Wanted signs in nearly every retail window and they are all short-handed.
Sorry for the misconception; what I meant is that people who aren't qualified (like don't have a CDL) apply for truck driving jobs through the want ads. Job service screens them out.
I liked your analogy, sunsprit. But honestly, in both Converse and Campbell counties, many companies are saying that if you can pass a drug test, you got a job. Nearly every high school student here who wants a summer job has one....as we still have Help Wanted signs in nearly every retail window and they are all short-handed.
One might mention that these areas are still in somewhat of a "boom" time economy with the extractive industries activity in the area ... unlike much of Wyoming at this time.
That's one of the main reasons why the "retail window(s)" in the area are seeking help; for the moment, it's a lot better paying jobs for the high paying sector of the local economy that will capture the available workers. Why wait tables or clerk at a cash register when you can make serious money doing jobs that aren't any more demanding in the industries?
In time, the "boom" will pass. The retailers won't need as much help then and won't be hiring so strongly.
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....compared to where? 
