Unemployment rates are raising across the country, and Wyoming is no exception. Rates have risen to 5.7 percent in Wyoming but are still less than the national average of 8.1 percent.
The Wyoming unemployment rate is now up to 5.7 percent after it increased in August.
Though the unemployment rate did increase, it is only a slight change; the unemployment rate in July was 5.6 percent, according to the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
With the unemployment rate at 5.7 percent, that puts about 17,444 people without jobs in a population of just over a half a million people, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This will be the third month in a row that Wyoming’s unemployment rate has increased, the Associated Press reported.
Wyoming’s current unemployment rate is still less than the national average, which was 8.1 percent in August. At a rate of over eight percent, nearly 12.7 million Americans were out of work in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unemployment in Wyoming hit a dramatic spike in 2009 when it reached about 7.5 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2007, Wyoming saw its lowest unemployment rate when it hit 2.6 percent.
For the month of August, Fremont County posted the highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.6 percent, followed by Lincoln County at 6.4 percent, Big Horn at 6.1 percent and Laramie County at 5.9 percent.
The lowest unemployment rate in the state was in Sublette County which had 3.5 percent, followed by Teton at 4.1 percent as of August.
Niobrara and Converse counties both had unemployment rates of 4.2 percent, the Associated Press reported.
