The number of Americans working from home has declined since 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But still, some 26% of U.S. households have someone working from home at least once a week. But when you drill into the data, like Bloomberg did this week, it shows striking differences on a state-by-state basis. Two neighboring states in the West — Colorado and Wyoming — have the highest and lowest shares of remote workers in the country.

In Wyoming, just 13% of households have a remote worker. Nick Colsch, an economist with Laramie County Community College, has been back in the classroom teaching for a couple of years. 

He said the state’s outsize labor force in energy is one reason so few workers can work from home. “Wyoming produces 40% of U.S. coal. People think West Virginia, but they should be thinking Wyoming,” he said.

As Joe Craig, a professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, pointed out, coal mining can’t be done remotely. “Until the computers take over and have cyborgs. ‘Rise of the Machines,'” he said. 

Wyoming’s economy is among the least diversified in the country, with few jobs in professional and educational services, state economist Wenlin Liu said.

“Wyoming is completely, proportionally, is at the bottom,” she said.

In Colorado, meanwhile, 38% of households have a remote worker. The state has lots of highly educated professional and technical workers. Some even brought their jobs to Colorado when they moved from coastal cities during the pandemic, said Eric Olson of talent firm Robert Half.

“Many of those companies were very flexible, allowing someone to move to Colorado, stay with the firm, keep their job,” he said.

Economist Tatiana Bailey with Data-Driven Economic Strategies said there’s also some self-selection going on. Colorado’s mountains and year-round sun attract workers who prioritize flexibility. 

“They like to be able to maybe work really hard so that they don’t have to work on Fridays, and they can go ski,” she said. 

Remote work is also well-supported by local infrastructure, said Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President J.J. Ament. “We have the second-largest domestic route network of any airport in America,” he noted.

That makes it convenient to meet a client or attend a corporate meeting in person when Zoom just doesn’t cut it.