Wyoming
Casper area sees slight unemployment rise from last year as overall economy improves
CASPER, Wyo. — According to data from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division, Natrona County’s unemployment rate at the end of September is slightly up from the same point in 2023, as well as the state’s average at the same point.
At the end of September, Natrona County’s unemployment rate was 2.9%. At the same point in 2023, the county’s rate was 2.6%. And in the most recent survey, Wyoming’s unemployment rate also sat at 2.6%. The state’s unemployment rate is down 1% from the same point in 2023.
Despite the slight rise in unemployment in the Casper area community, the report found that the economy is steadily improving. The Economic Analysis Division measures counties’ economic stability with an economic health index that looks at a variety of factors. In every indicator except for the unemployment rate, Natrona County saw improvement.
In addition to the unemployment rate, the economic health index considers the total nonfarm employment, the sales and use tax and the average home value.
Despite the unemployment rate rising by 0.3%, the total number of employed Natrona County residents grew by about 1.2%. Overall, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs in the county was 40,800 in September.
Sales and use taxes grew approximately 5.1%, and Natrona County’s collection of the 4% sales and use tax was reported at $10.3 million in September 2024.
The average Natrona County home value rose 2.2% from 2023 to 2024. According to the report, the average home value is $296,100.
However, because sales and use tax collections the county receives for a given month represent transactions that took place four to six weeks prior, the tax collection data lags by one month in the economic health index model.
Employment in Wyoming totaled 295,900 jobs at the end of September, up 2,800 from the same point last year.
“Total employment continues to increase year-over-year, but at a slowing rate,” Economic Analysis Division economist Dylan Bainer said.
Statewide, private education and health fields added the most jobs in the past year.
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Wyoming power plant booming with suspected UFO, drone sightings — but still no answers after over a year
Fleets of drones and suspected UFOs have been spotted hovering over a Wyoming power plant for more than a year, while a local sheriff’s department is still searching for clues.
Officials with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office recorded scores of beaming, drone-like objects circling around the Red Desert and Jim Bridger Power Plant in Rock Springs over the last 13 months — though they didn’t specify how many, the Cowboy State Daily reported.
Sheriff John Grossnickle was one of the first to witness the spectacles, and last saw the mind-boggling formation on Dec. 12, his spokesperson Jason Mower told the outlet.
The fleets periodically congregate over the power plant in coordinated formations, Mower claimed.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t been able to recover any of the suspected UFOs, telling the outlet they’re too high to shoot down.
The law enforcement outpost’s exhaustive efforts to get to the truth haven’t yielded any results, even after Grossnickle enlisted help from Wyoming US Rep. Harriet Hageman — who Mower claimed saw the formation during a trip to the power plant.
Hageman could not be reached for comment.
“We’ve worked with everybody. We’ve done everything we can to figure out what they are, and nobody wants to give us any answers,” Mower said, according to the outlet.
At first, spooked locals bombarded the sheriff’s office with calls about the confounding aerial formations. Now, though, Mower said that people seem to have accepted it as “the new normal.”
Mower noted that the objects, which he interchangeably referred to as “drones” and “unidentified flying objects,” have yet to pose a danger to the public or cause any damage to the power plant itself.
“It’s like this phenomenon that continues to happen, but it’s not causing any, you know, issues that we have to deal with — other than the presence of them,” he told the outlet.
The spokesperson promised the sheriff’s office would “certainly act accordingly” if the drones pose an imminent harm.
Meanwhile, Niobrara County Sheriff Randy Starkey told the Cowboy State Daily that residents of his community also reported mystery drone sightings over Lance Creek — more than 300 miles from the Jim Bridger Power Plant — starting in late October 2024 and ending in early March.
Starkey said he’s “just glad they’re gone,” according to the outlet.
Drone sightings captured the nation’s attention last year when they were causing hysteria in sightings over New Jersey.
Just days into his second term, President Trump had to clarify that the drones were authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to quell worries that they posed a national security threat.
Still, the public wasn’t convinced, but the mystery slowly faded as the sightings plummeted.
In October, though, an anonymous source with an unnamed military contractor told The Post that their company was responsible for the hysteria.
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