By Jackie Galli
Buffalo Bulletin
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

BUFFALO — Alice Swett loves her job.

“It’s solving puzzles day after day, and I love solving puzzles,” she said.

She has been an accountant since 1986 and owns Swett Equity Accounting, where she employs two full-time and one part-time accountant, in addition to herself.

But Swett said she’s lucky to have the staff she does, as the number of people in the profession has dwindled over the years. Swett often has to turn people away because she can’t take on more clients.

“There used to be enough public accountants to meet demand, but now there’s not,” she said.

While the high demand for accountants is a concern, it’s also an opportunity for job seekers. 

Accounting is one of several that the Research and Planning Department of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services identified as the most in-demand and high-paying jobs in the state. The department projected that, between 2022 and 2032, there have been and will continue to be roughly 211 job openings a year for accountants and auditors.

In its report, the department identified 36 professions with at least 100 projected job openings a year from 2022 to 2032 with a mean hourly wage of at least $21.07. That is considered the living wage in Wyoming for a single, child-free adult, according to research released this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The total projected openings include those due to new jobs and people who leave the workforce, are promoted or switch careers.

Plumbing was another profession identified in the list, which didn’t surprise Tyler Emme, a master plumber and owner of Cowboy State Plumbing. He has five employees and is always hiring, he said. He turns down projects every week.

“Demand hasn’t increased so much as the plumbers have decreased,” he said. “… I think any trade is in the same boat.”

Plumbing is one of the 23 professions identified on the department’s list that did not require more education than a high school diploma, other than some on-the-job training. For plumbing, trainees can do an apprenticeship out of high school and get paid while they learn, Emme said.

The job has also gotten easier, he said. Plumbers don’t have to carry cast-iron pipes into buildings and upstairs because they mostly use PVC pipes.

Part of the reason he thinks some people aren’t inclined to enter the profession is because they assume it’s dirty work, Emme said.

“Ninety percent of our business is new construction, water heaters – clean work,” he said.

Also, for many years, the cultural shift toward college dissuaded many young people from the trades, he said. 

According to a report released in November by Validated Insights, a higher-education marketing firm, there had been an enrollment decline in trade schools for the skilled trades for several years pre-pandemic. 

Postpandemic, that shift has changed, with a 1.2% compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2023 in students attending trade schools for the skilled trades. That growth contrasts with a 0.6% decline in university enrollment during those same years.

While many skilled trades do not require a trade school education, the enrollment shift may highlight a cultural shift away from higher education – something that could change the professional landscape in the future.

Cosme Lopez, owner and operator of Torque Diesel Engine Mechanics, said that most mechanics tend to be older, nearing retirement. Diesel engine mechanics were also on the department’s list. There is a huge need for them, particularly in Johnson County, because it’s a ranching community, Lopez said.

“A lot of people are ranching and so most gas vehicles, gas trucks, don’t have the power that they need,” Lopez said. “… Every ranch has a diesel truck. I haven’t been on one that didn’t.”

Diesel trucks have also become popular for non-ranchers.

“Driving that is social media, like Facebook, TikTok,” he said. “People like seeing custom, souped-up trucks.”

Lopez said he and his two brothers work at Torque, but they hope to expand. If they are able to acquire a bigger shop, they want to start working on semi-trucks, particularly with a Love’s Travel Stop that recently opened. In order to expand, however, Lopez said he will need more people. He thinks three more people would be ideal – with one being a mobile mechanic – but that may be hard to find.

The profession is also becoming more difficult as vehicles are getting more computerized. Lopez still drives his 1996 12-valve Cummins, which is all mechanical – one of the last of its kind, he said, before vehicles began to change.

Carpenters, electricians and welders were also among the skilled trades on the list. The most in-demand job was heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, with over 800 openings a year, with a mean hourly wage of nearly $30.

A lot of management and supervisory positions were on the list, such as construction managers, that required a bachelor’s degree.

One of the interesting professions that stood out was in tourism. 

The department estimated roughly 109 tour and travel guide position openings each year. Johnson County Tourism Association’s marketing director, Toby Carrig, said that there aren’t as many tour guides in Buffalo as there are in other areas, such as Yellowstone National Park, but that would be a great growth opportunity.

“I’d like to think the demand would be there to bring people to places like Dry Creek Petrified Tree Environmental Education Area, Crazy Woman Canyon, Fort Phil Kearny and the battlefields, and some of the locations in the Bighorns as a way to make people stay longer and see more things,” Carrig wrote in an email. “Even in the south end of the county with Outlaw Canyon, the Fort Reno site and the Bozeman Trail markers along Nine Mile Road, those are interesting places where a guide can provide valuable insight and ensure the tourism is done responsibly and sustainably.”

Some existing businesses provide tours in the area, such as Hoofprints of the Past Museum, which takes people on trips through Outlaw Canyon. However, Carrig said there is room for more – particularly shuttle services.

While professions that are in demand may present a challenge for customers, it is great for people in those professions, such as plumbing, Emme said.

“More people should get into it, but it’s beneficial that they don’t,” he said.