County unemployment rates continue to drop

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago caused a significant number of job losses across the state due to the impact of restrictions and business shut-downs. This quarter, however, the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (DWS) has reported a continued rebound in the state’s unemployment statistics, with Crook among those counties heading back to its pre-pandemic lows.

In March, according to DWS, Crook County had the joint fifth lowest unemployment rate in the state at 4.4%, only slightly behind the lowest rate in Wyoming: Weston County at 4.1%. By comparison, 7.9% of Sublette County’s workforce is currently jobless and Natrona County has a 7.9% unemployment rate.

Crook County’s rate dropped by 0.2% between February and March, having been previously recorded as 4.6%.

In March, a total of 170 people in Crook County were listed as unemployed, down from 178 in February. This compares to a recorded 185 unemployed people in March, 2020, as the pandemic reached this area.

Though the Wyoming unemployment rate was 3.7% in September, 2019, it declined rapidly due to the pandemic, reaching 9.6% statewide by April, 2020. From the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020, the DWS reports that 26,733 jobs were lost and total payroll fell by $216.5 million, with the largest losses in the leisure and hospitality and mining industries.

Crook County lost a total of 53 jobs during that time, or 2.1% of the total number of available jobs. Payroll, however, increased by 2.5% with the average weekly wage increasing from $887 to $928.