The numbers that tell the experts how Wyoming's economy is faring are sometimes contradictory.
The available work force in the nation's least-populated state has continued its steady decline since the energy bust of the mid-1980s and now is a little less than half the population of Denver.The number of jobs in the state, as reflected by the number of people employed, has declined steadily since 1990. Wages have failed to keep up with inflation.
Yet the state's population has increased steadily since 1990, as have housing prices, construction permits and the cost of living in general.
Those numbers, the experts say, show Wyoming is sharing in the new economic boom of the Rockies, although not as obviously as other states.
With its wide-open spaces, low tax burden, low cost of living and generally friendly atmosphere, Wyoming is becoming a haven for "telecommuters" and self-sufficient refugees from the West and East coasts.
"What we are seeing around the state is a number of people coming in to retire or to take advantage of Wyoming's low prices," said George Gault, head of the state Division of Economic and Community Development. "We're seeing a number of people . . . from California, and many have sold their businesses or homes and have enough equity to live on for a while, and they're not pressed to take a job."
Wyoming's population, which peaked at a little more than 500,000 in the early 1980s, is now estimated at about 465,000, an increase of 12,000 from 1990.
Armed with large profits from the sale of their homes in other states, the immigrants are buying up homes and land in Wyoming. While some are relaxing, others are forming their own businesses or "telecommuting," conducting business hundreds of miles away by phone and computer.
While the businesses break the mold of the natural-resources development the state traditionally has relied on, they are definitely contributing to the state's economy, Gault said.
"Many of these are very small companies; home-based businesses will not be visible in that way," he said. "Sure, they add to the economy."
The growth follows a national trend of improvements in small business, Gault said.
"In that sense, we are right on the cutting edge with a trend of small businesses," he said.
Gault pointed as an example to a former California resident who moved to Glenrock to publish a specialty magazine, employing himself, his wife and one other person.
"He's not going to show up in anybody's statistics, but he's here, he's employing people, he bought a home and he bought property," he said.
In 1981, mining accounted for almost 14.5 percent of the state's jobs, trailing government at about 17.9 percent, services at 16.9 percent and retail trade at 15.9 percent.
By 1993, only 6.7 percent of the state's jobs were found in the mining industry, while the services sector employed 23.6 percent of the state's workers, government employed about 23 percent, and retail trade was responsible for about 17.1 percent of the state's jobs.
State Department of Administration and Information figures show that by 2003, only 7 percent of the state's workers will be involved in mining, while more than one-quarter, 26.3 percent, will be in the services sector. About 21.6 percent will have jobs with the government, and 17 percent will work in the retail trade, the figures showed.
That shift, expected over the next 10 years, is characteristic of the kind of growth Wyoming can expect as its economy shifts away from minerals and toward the service sector, Kennedy said.
"People have to stop thinking those are bad jobs, because they are not," she said.
Wyoming has attracted several small industries, such as foundries that moved to Casper from California because of that state's stringent environmental laws and high tax burden.
Several service industries have opened their doors in Wyoming. SafeCard, the world's largest provider of credit-card registry services, employs 400 in Cheyenne.
But the state should not count on the arrival of many other large employers, Gault said, because no city in Wyoming could absorb any company that brought with it 500 workers or more.
As the newly self-sufficient residents grow bored or find themselves running short of money, they will probably open their own businesses, Gault said, or provide financing and expertise to other new businesses.
"We're already seeing some of that," he said. "We're wrestling with how to link these little companies with a guy who's probably a corporate refugee who's got all kinds of great experience and some money."