Laramie Economic Development Corporation
www.laramiewy.org
2523 East Garfield Street, Suite B
Phone: 307.742.2212 Fax: 307.742.8200 

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Labor Force

Laramie Economic Development Corporation is confident our community will be able to provide a highly educated workforce, including skilled software engineers and IT professionals.  Within this summary we have recapped several areas of the workforce for your review:

Becoming an “Employer of Choice”

  • Existing Labor Force
  • Educational Attainment
  • Graduating Students with Computer Science and Engineering Degrees
  • Current Unemployment Statistics: Unemployed workers with Computer Science and Computer Engineering Skill Sets

Becoming an “Employer of Choice”

If a Data Center locates to Laramie and would provide a quality wage with benefits for their employees, they would very easily become the “Employer of Choice” in our community and realistically in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. 

"Employer of Choice" means that workers--employees and contractors--choose to work for that employer... when presented with other choices of employment. Studies have consistently found that, as an employer of choice your client will enjoy better financial results, a bigger pool of job candidates, and higher level of employee engagement.  More importantly, being an employer of choice means they can build a unique organization culture that attracts the right employees. It means that these employees are dedicated to working for them and will go the extra mile to help your client’s organization succeed.  It also means that employees will choose to stay with them even when competitors try to recruit employees from them.

Existing Labor Force

Laramie had 19,473 available workers at the end of July 2011 with 18,617 of these people employed.  The total number of unemployed workers in Laramie for the same period was 856.  The unemployment rate in Albany County was 4.3% as of July 2011.

Educational Attainment

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 94.28% of Laramie’s population age of 25 years and over had a high school graduate education or higher.  In addition, 52.48% of the Laramie population have a bachelor’s degree or higher.  Both of these numbers exceed the national average.

2010 EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Population 25 years and over

18,211

100%

Less than 9th grade

459

2.52%

9th to 12th grade, no diploma

583

3.2%

High school graduate (includes equivalency)

2,848

15.64%

Some college, no degree

3,411

18.73%

Associate’s degree

1,354

7.44%

Bachelor's degree

5,175

28.42%

Graduate or professional degree

4,381

24.06%

Percent high school graduate or higher

94.28%

Percent bachelor's degree or higher

52.48%

Source: 2010 Census Data

City of Laramie and Albany County have an incredibly highly educated workforce that is in many cases underemployed.  Many workers choose to live and work in a community with low crime, excellent school systems and an outdoor lifestyle.  Your client’s project would really make a difference in Laramie in a positive way. 

Graduating Students with Computer Science and Engineering Degrees

The University of Wyoming, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, the University of Denver, Regis University and the University of Northern Colorado are all within a two hour drive of Laramie.  The United States Air Force Academy is a three hour drive from Laramie.  The proximity and ease of accessibility to these institutions offer opportunities to collaborate with a knowledge base of research specialists and student interns. 

Specifically addressing graduates from the University of Wyoming in the computer science and computer engineering areas of study, the following data was provided by Dr. William Gern, Vice President of Research.  “In this case, I think that we could probably say that UW graduates about 75-100 people a year with advanced computer skills.  This is an informed guess right now, but one that I can defend, so it is conservative.”

Computer Science:

  • 15 BS COSC graduates per year
  •   5 MS/PhD COSC graduates per year

Electrical Engineering / Computer Engineering:

  • 25 BS EE/CE graduates per year
  •   6 MS/PhD EE graduates per year

Math:

The University of Wyoming typically has about 70-80 graduates each year (math majors or secondary math majors), about half of whom have significant numerical analysis/computing experience.  Our students do not encounter system management courses as a general rule, but they are computer literate and could come up to speed on IT issues, if there is mutual interest.  In addition, on average, we have 3-4 M.S. students and 1-2 Ph.D. students finishing each year.

Laramie County Community College – Albany County Campus:  LCCC-Albany Campus currently offers the following computer courses:   Microsoft, Linux and Cisco Networking with an average of 10 - 20 students (5-6 are currently ready to go to work).

Current Unemployment Statistics: Unemployed workers with Computer Science and Computer Engineering Skill Sets:

Below is information we requested from the Wyoming Workforce Department – Laramie Office:

“We pulled a candidate listing for Software Engineers, and had 73 resumes show up with related skill sets and experience.   Of those 73, about 32 have direct experience with software engineering.  Of the 32, 15 are software engineers.  We can provide a profile listing upon your request.

Please note this is a report pulled only of people who are registered and have a resume in Wyoming@Work, which only accounts for a percentage of the Wyoming population.  Also note that these are people who either already live in Albany County, or have specifically requested to work in Albany County.   It does not include people who live in other counties.   As a selling point, you can tell your potential employer we can register them on Wyoming@Work now and they can look at the labor market themselves.  We think they will be impressed with the idea that they can have over 75 names and numbers for recruiting with one click of the mouse.”

Jamie Weingart, Employment Specialist / Business Consultant, Laramie Workforce Center, jweing@wyo.gov