Wyoming Leads the Country in Self-Employment

Just over one-third of Wyoming’s 436,564 full-time and part-time jobs in 2022 were self-employed, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates.

This proportion was the highest in the U.S.

Similar to the wage and salary employment, self-employment also measures jobs – as opposed to workers – on a full-time and part-time basis.

Nationally, the share of self-employment was 25.6 percent.

Florida (31.1%), Montana (29.5%), and Texas (29.3%) were the only other states that exceeded 29.0 percent.

On the other hand, the District of Columbia (13.9%) had the lowest percentage of self-employed, followed by West Virginia (20.3%), Wisconsin (20.5%), and Indiana (20.7%). Over time, the growth rate for self-employed was much faster than wage and salary employment.

For example, for the past 50 years, between 1972 and 2022, wage and salary employment just doubled, while self-employment more than quadrupled in both the U.S. and Wyoming.

Particularly, after the COVID-19 pandemic started, self-employed jobs sped up dramatically.

From 2019 to 2022, self-employment in the state grew 32.2 percent, compared to the decline of 2.4 percent for wage and salary employment.

“Many individuals turned to self-employment as a result of job losses and economic uncertainty, and many people started their own businesses or pursued freelance work due to changes in the labor market,” said Dr. Wenlin Liu, Chief Economist with the State of Wyoming, Economic Analysis Division.

“A number of professionals and contractors may have taken advantage of telework capabilities and migrated to less populated and lower cost areas.”

The BEA estimate covers all counties in the U.S., and also includes industries. In Wyoming, real estate and rental and leasing (North American Industry Classification System 53, called NAICS 53) showed the highest proportion of self-employed jobs with 87.6 percent, followed by finance and insurance (NAICS 52), at 77.8%, and farm (73.2%).

“In general, characteristics or nature of the industry and market demand greatly influence the number of self-employed in a specific sector,” Liu continued.

Across the state, Sheridan County had the highest percent of self-employed jobs (50.4%) in the state, followed by Johnson’s 47.4 percent. Crook (42.9%), Lincoln (41.7%), Niobrara (42.1%), and Teton (41.9%) counties also demonstrated larger shares. On the contrary, Sweetwater County had the smallest proportion where only 19.6 percent of jobs were self-employed. Albany, Campbell, and Carbon counties also displayed a lower number of self-employment, around 26.0 percent, respectively in 2022. “Existence or scarcity of big employers in local economies plays a large role in the percentage,” Liu commented.