CHEYENNE — More of Wyoming’s teenagers are joining the workforce, with health care and social assistance among their top employment choices, according to Wyoming Department of Workforce Services data.
DWS Research and Planning Research Supervisor Michael Moore presented labor statistics for workers between 15 and 19 years old to the Wyoming Workforce Development Council on Thursday during its quarterly meeting.
“We all know the number of youth working in the U.S. and Wyoming has declined over the last couple of decades,” Moore told the council. “And of course, we all know about the exodus of younger Wyoming workers to other states, and the discussions we’ve had on retaining them. But in the last few years, we’ve actually seen an increase in youth working in Wyoming.”
Not only is the workforce growing, teens are working, on average, for more months of the year, and the career areas that they’re choosing have diversified.
According to Moore’s presentation, Wyoming’s youth are increasingly picking jobs in health care and social assistance — in particular, working with children and the elderly. The percentage of Wyoming youth working in those fields has increased by 47.9% from 2013 to 2023.
“My guess would be they’re working in entry-level positions, helping more experienced staff,” Moore told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, after noting that they don’t have access to the specific positions youth are filling. “They may also be working in jobs like clerical and cleaning jobs. Just because they’re working in the health care industry doesn’t necessarily mean they’re working in health care jobs.”
A major priority of the council is to prepare young people for the workforce and encourage them to stay in Wyoming, which was referenced throughout the council meeting. Chairman Eric Trowbridge noted that he was encouraged by the data presented.
“It’s promising to see increasing numbers of young individuals entering employment, as well as a noticeable diversification in the industries they are choosing — particularly the migration toward health care and social services over the past decade,” Trowbridge said in email correspondence.
With the exception of a period of economic downturn in 2020, the youth working population in Wyoming has been consistently growing.
Not only are more Wyoming teens working, they’re working more quarters out of the year, on average, or for more months out of the year.
For many years, the average number of quarters worked for youth ages 15-19 annually was 2.6. In other words, youth were working about seven months out of the year, on average, Moore explained. In 2023, that jumped to 2.8 quarters — youth were working closer to eight to nine months out of the year in 2023.
While the council generally found the increase in youth workers encouraging, youth participation in the workforce is still not as strong as it was prior to the 2008 recession.
Moore noted that the longer downtrend in teenage workers was not unique to Wyoming. Labor force participation rate for youth ages 16 to 19 in the U.S. declined from about 52% during 2000 to approximately 35% for the last 15 years.
The 2008 recession pushed national labor force participation for youth below 40%, and it never recovered, Moore told the council. The observed increase since 2019 doesn’t return the state to the same percentage of youth workers that was common in 2000, but it’s still a positive trend.
“One of the biggest positives of having more youth in the workforce is more young people learning soft skills — things like communicating with co-workers, showing up on time and working a schedule,” Moore said via email correspondence. “One of the concerns a few years ago was people who forgo working in their teens might not have developed those skills, and may struggle if they don’t start working until their early 20s.”
Because the research is relatively new, it’s still difficult to tell what has motivated teens to rejoin the workforce, Moore told the WTE in email correspondence. The data also is not able to capture how working for credit programs in schools has impacted these numbers.
“These trends are positive signs for Wyoming’s future,” Trowbridge said. “As a Workforce Development Council, we remain committed to supporting our youth, creating opportunities to help them thrive and ensuring they stay engaged in Wyoming as we work to grow the state’s economy and workforce.”