CHEYENNE — Wyoming businesses are preparing to weather a long economic downturn, and the state is faring better in this recession than it did during the 1980s energy bust, an official with a state business advocacy group said.
The Wyoming Business Alliance/Wyoming Heritage Foundation last week completed a series of forums on the economy in Cheyenne, Casper, Gillette, Sheridan, Riverton and Rock Springs.
Bill Schilling, president of the organization, said that in meeting with business owners around the state, he found “cautious optimism.”
Some businesses have trimmed payrolls and fixed costs because of nervousness about the economy, Schilling said.
Schilling said he found that business owners expect the economy to be tight for the next few years, but they are making strategic decisions to weather it.
“That’s an important bridge in and of itself because when the storm comes, you can be in denial or you can say ‘let’s get about dealing with it,’ ” he said. “And they’re more in the ‘let’s get about dealing with it’ mode than denial. And that’s an important transformation.”
A few businesses have closed, and more jobs might be shed, especially by local governments coping with reduced tax revenue, Schilling said.
But some technology, retail and natural resources businesses are hiring again, he said.
“There are pockets of success, and those pockets should radiate out and create more pockets of success,” he said.
In addition, Schilling said few businesses have closed their doors compared to the situation in the 1980s when an oil boom went bust and the state lost about 10 percent of its population.
“You don’t have the store vacancies in your downtown areas like you did then,” he said.
While the state lost thousands of energy and construction jobs last year, Wyoming has avoided the housing and banking finance crisis that has plagued other states, and the energy industry seems to be holding its own in northeast and southwest Wyoming, he said.
Any population decline from the current recession shouldn’t exceed 3 percent, he said.
However, there are concerns about whether federal government policies on sage grouse and the leasing of coal-bed methane will crimp the state’s economy by limiting development and natural-gas production, Schilling said.
