Awhile back my sister sent me a notepad that she’d come across.
The notepad promoted the Wyoming Department of Workforce Service (a fancy name for “Labor” I suspect), proclaiming that they “link human and economic development for Wyoming’s future.”
Across the bottom of the pages they had four separate rotating factoids to consider as one doodles and take notes. The first one was rather cheerful!
Wyoming has ranked No. 5 in job growth since December 2002, ahead of all surrounding states.
With this kind of job growth, I could see why people from surrounding states might want to move to the Cowboy State and look for a job—there are jobs to be had!
Unfortunately, not all is rosy:
From 1989 to 2002, Wyoming experienced a net loss of 1,722 residents with a bachelor’s degree.
So, like most rural states in the US, Wyoming is experiencing “brain drain,” as its most well educated citizens search for both high paying jobs and signs of culture. However, this is not the least upbeat factoid in rotation:
A woman working in Wyoming in 2000 earned an average of 67 cents for every $1.00 a man earned.
Wow… women earn two-thirds of what men earn—if I were a woman (no jokes please), this is not something that would encourage me to move to the state. It would keep me away. And by the way, emphasis is in the original.
Surprisingly, the factoids can get less cheerful.
Almost 10 percent of Wyoming workers are juggling more than one job.
I guess that despite the high job growth there must not be high salaries. Kind of depressing to think that one in every ten people are, by their own admission, juggling more than one job.
One wonders what kind of fact they would have come up with for a fifth factoid?
Wyoming, where men are men and sheep are afraid.
The Indy Star website posted an article today about that city’s struggle to attract/retain university graduates. It turns out that Seattle ranks #1 in the US for degree-holders per capita (53%). And I mistakenly thought that Boston, with 50 degree-granting institutions, would rank #1.
I spent a night in wyoming once… scared the crap out of me. I remember hitting mcDonalds at 8:00 in the morning, and everyone in there was wearing old overalls and staring at us like they wanted to make us squeal like a pig.
Wyoming is one of the few places on Earth I truely adore. However, I know it’s not for everybody–and I would only move back if I could move back with a boyfriend in tow. The hunting is too hard there.