Workforce is the key to Wyoming’s economy

Cato the Elder was a Senator during the Roman Republic.  After a trip to Carthage, he became convinced that Carthage was a great threat to Rome and that this issue was the most important of his time.  He took to finishing all his speeches, regardless of topic, with the phrase, “Carthage must be destroyed.”  Ultimately, Rome acted as he urged, Carthage was destroyed, and the story of his single-minded focus on one topic continues today.

Sometimes, I worry that I am becoming like Cato the Elder, but with a different topic.  I have spent a great deal of time and column space writing about the importance of Wyoming’s economic future.  Were I to adopt Cato the Elder’s technique, every article would end with the phrase, “Wyoming’s economy must diversify.”  It is a topic we have discussed for decades, but its importance grows every day.  Just as Carthage was the greatest threat to ancient Rome, economic decline is the greatest threat to present day Wyoming.  We need to grow new business sectors in Wyoming, or risk economic catastrophe.

One of the greatest barriers to attracting new businesses to Wyoming – whether imported from out of state or founded here at home – is the difficulty in finding a qualified workforce.  We all understand that businesses need employees.  What may not be as apparent is that the necessary workforce must exist before a company will invest in
a community.

We often imagine a company moving to a new community and bringing its workforce with it.  However, the truth is that companies rarely depend on workers from outside communities to meet their employment needs.  This makes sense when you think about it.  A software company moving to a small town may be in serious trouble if its lead engineer leaves and they are unable to find a qualified replacement.  That is why they depend on existing populations to fill their needs, rather than depend on their own training to create qualified employees.  Put differently, the workforce builds businesses more than businesses build the workforce.  Wyoming must focus on developing the types of workforces that lead to business formation in Wyoming communities.

In building these workforces, we must start by playing to our strengths.  Wyoming generally does well with high school graduation rates and the number of people who obtain further education or training.  This means that the skills likely exist in many of our communities to support businesses that require trained labor, as long as the right businesses focus on the right places.

Instead, the challenge in building attractive workforces likely lies elsewhere.  Do we have the other things that are necessary for working populations to live and thrive?  This is where we currently fall short.  We lack affordable housing, amenities, and other necessities for vibrant, livable communities.  We are not going to attract qualified workers if they cannot afford to live here, if our schools do not do a good job of educating their children, and if they do not have things to do outside of work.  If we are going to grow Wyoming’s economic opportunities, these are the areas to focus on at
the start.

However, even though these are the obvious first steps, they are not the only things that we should do to support economic change.  Once we know our workforce is ready, government or quasi-government agencies should take an active role in recruiting and supporting new businesses.  Organizations like Cheyenne Leads have been extremely successful in developing new economic sectors in their home communities.  We should learn from their examples and try to develop similar organizations in other places.  We should also strategically focus on encouraging like companies to locate near one another.  It is rare that a company thrives in a vacuum.  Instead, companies have their own communities, and this is necessary for a healthy economic ecosystem.  Tech companies are often located near other tech companies, where they can exchange talent and training.  The same goes for manufacturing or information economy jobs.  If we can help these sectors build some momentum, Wyoming’s economy can be transformed into something much more stable for the next generation.

At the same time that Cato the Elder was warning of the dangers of Carthage, another faction was preaching idleness.  This too exists in Wyoming.  Just as some of us point out the need and urgency for Wyoming to develop a more vibrant economy, there are those who would have us stay complacent.  They reject any calls for change or modernization, instead hoping to continue to coast on the same economic sectors that have carried our state for the last generation.  Unfortunately, this is not a realistic course for Wyoming and it will lead to ruin if we pursue it.  As Cato the Elder might have said if he lived here now, Wyoming’s economy must diversify.  It is the only path forward.