JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Wyoming’s stat-keepers recently posted updated numbers for their Intercounty Commuting Report. It records the county people work in and compares it to the county or other state that they call home. While 79% of us toil on our own soil, a surprising 61,800 people go all Kevin Bacon Footloose across county lines for a paycheck.
Home, home on the front range
Many working in Jackson risk negotiating a 20-mile, 8,400 foot, sometimes-icy pass from Idaho (personal tax rate as much as 7.4%) into the land-of-plenty. How many? One out of every third job in Teton County is filled by someone from the other Teton County.
Less obvious: 6,700 out-of-staters (read: “Coloradoans”…maybe sprinkle in some Cornhuskers) come into Cheyenne to mine their paycheck and return home to cheer on their Buffaloes or Rams. Regardless of where that check came from, the Centennial State wants their 4.63% cut in the form of personal income tax. An ironic sidenote may be that some of those government collected funds go toward claims stemming from legalized marijuana issues [shocked face emoji], a product Wyoming doesn’t condone.
“Wait, that’s OUR 4.63%”, you say. Hold your protest for the data that will one day show how many of those southern border crossers hold Wyoming State government jobs in our capitol city.
A wealth of insights
Based on this data, can we infer that conditions in one county are more favorable for lifestyle than another? Or, that a county is worth working in, but has the tagline “Good jobs, but you wouldn’t want to live here?”
Top 3 counties to live in that make a long commute elsewhere bearable (by percent of population):
1) Crook commutes to Campbell – 42% of the working population commutes out of the county
2) Weston commutes to Campbell – 33%
3) Converse commutes to Natrona – 30%
Top 3 counties offering employment worth the windshield time (by percent of population):
1) Hot Springs – 17% of their workforce commute in from another Wyoming county
2) Crook – 16%
3) Big Horn – 16%
