Wyoming: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment

Exports Support Jobs for Wyoming's Workers

Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 1.2 percent of Wyoming's total private-sector employment. Roughly one in ten (9.7 percent) of all manufacturing workers in Wyoming depend on exports for their jobs. (2006 data are the latest available.)

Note: Export-related employment data shown do not include manufacturing and non-manufacturing jobs involved in the export of non-manufactured goods, such as farm products, minerals, and services sold to foreign buyers. Indirect exports exclude imported items. The complete 2006 export-related employment series is available on our Export Related Jobs pages. Additional information on methodology used in the export-related employment series can be found in the U.S. Census Bureau's publication Exports from Manufacturing Establishments: 2006.

Source: State Export-Related Employment Project, International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census.

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Exports Sustain Hundreds of Wyoming Businesses

A total of 296 companies exported goods from Wyoming locations in 2006. Of those, 220 (74 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 500 employees.

SMEs generated 35 percent of Wyoming's total exports of merchandise in 2006.

Source: International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division: Exporter Database.

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Foreign Investment Creates Jobs in Wyoming

In 2006, foreign-controlled companies employed 8,000 workers in Wyoming. Major sources of Wyoming's jobs in 2006 were the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Mexico, and France.

Of these employees, 1,600 were in the manufacturing sector, accounting for 20 percent of total manufacturing employment in the state. Foreign-controlled companies accounted for 15.7 percent of total manufacturing employment in Wyoming in 2006.

Foreign investment in Wyoming was responsible for 3.7 percent of the state’s total private-industry employment in 2006.

Note: All figures exclude employment in banks affiliated with foreign companies.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Wyoming Depends on World Markets

Wyoming's export shipments of merchandise in 2007 totaled $802 million. This is a 38 percent increase over the 2003 total of $581 million.

Wyoming exported globally to 99 foreign destinations in 2007. The state's largest market in 2007 was our NAFTA trading partner Canada, which received exports of $234 million (29 percent) of Wyoming's merchandise export total. Canada was followed by Brazil ($55 million), Japan ($40 million), Chile ($40 million), and Indonesia ($39 million).

The state's leading export category is chemical manufactures, which alone accounted for 71 percent ($566 million) of Wyoming's total merchandise exports in 2007. Other top manufactured exports that year were machinery manufactures ($61 million), transportation equipment ($19 million), and fabricated metal products ($10 million). Apart from directly exporting a wide range of manufactures, Wyoming is also an important exporter of minerals, such as coal-a fact not apparent from U.S. export statistics because Wyoming's mineral exports are often sold indirectly, through wholesalers and other vendors located outside the state.

Source: Revised Origin of Movement State Export Series, Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division.

Caution: The Origin of Movement series allocates exports to states based on transportation origin, i.e., the state from which goods began their journey to the port (or other point) of exit from the United States. The transportation origin of exports is not always the same as the location where the goods were produced. Consequently, conclusions about "export production" in a state should not be made solely on the basis of the Origin of Movement state export figures.

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Wyoming's Metropolitan Exports

In the first half of 2007, the metropolitan area of Casper exported $32 million in merchandise, 21 percent of Wyoming's total merchandise exports. Another major metropolitan area in Wyoming that exported in the first half of 2007 was Cheyenne ($8.5 million).

Source: International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division: Metropolitan Export Series.

Caution: The Origin of Movement zip-based series allocates exports to metropolitan areas based on transportation origin, i.e., the metropolitan area from which goods began their journey to the port (or other point) of exit from the United States. The transportation origin of exports is not always the same as the location where the goods were produced. Consequently, conclusions about "export production" in a metropolitan area should not be made solely on the basis of the Origin of Movement zip-based export figures.

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