Investments and Professional Services

From Sustaining Jackson Hole Wiki

During the past decade, Teton County has become one of the few in the nation where investments provide the greatest share of residents’ income. As it has become easier for wealthy people to manage their investments from afar and for professionals to work from remote locations, the number of these people living in Teton County has grown, boosting the county’s economy and total income.

The clearest indication of this trend is the decrease in relative importance of wages and salaries to Teton County’s economy. Between 1994 and 2003, wages provided an average of just 40 percent of residents’ total income; between 1991 and 1993, on average wages accounted for over half of residents’ total income. Recent years have seen a particular surge in capital gains income.

Along with the increase in investment income, a growing portion of Teton County’s labor force earns its income by providing professional services. Some of these people are self-employed, and some work for a rapidly growing number of service-oriented firms. Comparing Teton County’s income by source to the state and the nation shows that the professional services and finance category grew much more substantially in Jackson Hole than elsewhere. (See graph 4-19.) In addition, self-employment income reported to the Internal Revenue Service grew 13 percent in Teton County in the 1990s, compared to 10 percent and 8.5 percent respectively in Wyoming and the United States.

While it is impossible to comprehensively measure Teton County’s economy, it appears that taxable sales make up only about 25 percent of the overall total. Yet taxable sales – which fund state and local government – is the only economic activity tracked comprehensively by the state. As a result, many people use taxable sales as a proxy for Teton County’s overall economy, even as it declines in relative importance. (See graphs 4-15 to 4-18 on pages 21 and 22.)

Sources: Internal Revenue Service, State of Wyoming

Graph 4-19 In Teton County, income from investments and professional services quintupled between 1991 and 2003, and now accounts for 2/3 of residents’ total income. This increase came at the expense of all other wage categories, retail in particular. While both Wyoming and the United States have seen similar shifts, they have been much more pronounced in Teton County. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis