FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 23, 2005
For more information contact:

Rachel Girt, WBC
Phone: 307.777.2851 Cel 307.631.4681

Wyoming targeted industries and workforce study released today

CASPER – The Wyoming Business Council today released the Wadley-Donovan Study on Target Industries and Workforce Availability during a meeting in Casper.

Under the study, the Wadley-Donovan Group reviewed the state from the perspective of a company. Topics covered include: real estate, tax, infrastructure, labor, training, and quality of life issues. The study, broken into 12 separate areas or zones, is available at the following web site: http://www.taimerica.com/wyoming/reports.html.

The study is a combined effort between the Wyoming Business Council, the Wyoming Workforce Development Council, and the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
Tucker Fagan, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council, explained the importance of target industry studies to economic development efforts. “Targeting helps form the game plan for recruiting businesses,” Fagan said. “Rather than spreading our resources over many different industries, we want to concentrate where it makes the most sense. We included workforce because it is a critical component for recruiting and growing industries.”

“The Department of Workforce Services focuses on meeting changing demands of Wyoming businesses, citizens and the economy,” said Kathy Emmons, director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services. “The data provided by the Wadley-Donovan study is an excellent tool for helping to determine Wyoming’s demands. Merging the Wadley-Donovan results with the Wyoming Self-Sufficiency Standard, the Department of Workforce Services can become more targeted with our resources to fund training and education that meets industry demands and provides a livable wage.”

In compiling the information, Wadley-Donovan interviewed representative employers, economic development professionals, educators, developers, realtors, and government officials in each of the regional zones. For each zone, the study recommends targeted industries – types of companies that economic development efforts could focus on recruitment. The study also focuses on the following for each region: labor availability; labor quality; labor costs; available training/education; quality of life; and overall business climate. The study also provides communities with professional analysis by a site selector of their strengths and areas of growth.

Wyoming Targeted Industries
The following are some of the Wyoming targeted industries (not in order of priority):

• Knowledge-based operations: value added engineering and technical services for the energy industry; data processing and information retrieval services; engineering, research and testing labs; Internet service providers; mobile entrepreneurs and Lone Eagles; archival services for educational institutions; and data processing services/information service operations.
• Back offices/call centers
• Energy products: feedstocks from gasified coal (diesel, ammonia, urea, etc); products using feedstocks (fertilizers, chemicals, plastic resins, explosives); and trace mineral extraction from coal-bed methane water supply.
• Training facilities: mining-related activities and vocational-technical activities.
• Creative arts/western arts: artists; production companies; equipment; services; products; and mobile entrepreneurs and Lone Eagles.
• Beef/buffalo processing, including organic
• Retirement communities/assisted living

Preliminary Conclusions
The following are some of the preliminary conclusions from Wadley-Donovan results:

• Some of the most critical issues facing the state are labor related. The state is facing widespread workforce shortages in most occupational lines.
• Employer responses to the issue of workforce quality were lukewarm. Roughly 61 percent of responding surveyed employers are concerned about the level of basic skills among job applicants.
• Despite these labor availability issues, employers very seldom use the state’s colleges, technical institute, and university for recruiting, even though they rate the quality of the schools’ graduates as satisfactory to good. Employers prefer to use private vendors for staff training.
• The research also revealed the following concerns: a widespread shortage of “ready-to-go, shovel-ready” sites; a shortage of available buildings meeting current office and industrial needs; scattered housing shortages that restrict recruiting of talent from other locations; and a perceived shortage of available non-equity capital for entrepreneurs and small business to expand.

Recommendations
Wadley-Donovan recommended the following:

• Enhancement of the linkages between the colleges/University and businesses in the state
• Look into expanding the awareness of available investment capital to small business and entrepreneurs
• Consider whether the state should emphasize product development before it pursues a business attraction program. Wadley-Donovan recommends consideration of greater site-readiness programs, speculative building construction (public or private sectors) and greater workforce-readiness programs.
• Increase housing where shortages exist. Improved executive and middle-income housing availability is needed in some areas of the state to help companies in those areas recruit technical, professional and managerial talent from other locations.
• Consider the development of an image enhancement campaign within the state on the state’s advantages, as well as the development of a state “brand” that could be used in national awareness campaigns.

Background:
This is the second time the Business Council has done a targeted industry study. Deloitte-Touche Fantus did the first study in 2000. Under the 2000 study, the state was divided into six regions. The near-term targets were: high-end customized outdoor consumer products and apparel; back office services; printing and publishing; plastics manufacturing; and telecommunications suppliers and service. The long-term targets were tele-industries/E-commerce; data storage/warehousing and space exploration.

Last spring, the Wyoming Business Council decided to update its targeted industry study. Wadley-Donovan, a nationally recognized site selection firm, was selected to conduct the study as a result of a competitive bid process. The zones were expanded to 12, because the land area was too big and diverse when dividing the state into only six zones.

While Wadley-Donovan was working on the target industry and employer perspective of the workforce, the Wyoming Workforce Development Council asked the Wyoming Business Council to analyze and report from the employee or potential employee point of view. In January 2005, Wadley-Donovan did a household survey to define unemployment, underemployment, and employed. The synthesis of this data is still being done by Wadley-Donovan and is scheduled for completion by the end of April.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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