Dropping gas prices may help Idaho’s economy in surprising ways

Gas prices have been dropping for the past few weeks. According to AAA the national average has declined for 88 days in a row, so people should have more money in their pocket to spend elsewhere.

But there are some other surprising ways this helps Idaho’s economy.

With the oil boom, a lot of people left Idaho to move to areas where oil is produced.
Now with oil prices dropping, there is a chance those workers might be out of a job.

That sounds like it would hurt workers, but economists say that might actually be good for Idaho’s economy.

“You’ve got people leaving the state for employment like going out to North Dakota, but you’re also seeing the baby boomers starting to retire, and that’s really depleting our work force here in Idaho. So it could be a really good thing for our economy bringing some of those people back,” said Chris St. Jeor, a region economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.

And if those workers do come back, there are jobs available.

“The jobs over in the oil fields aren’t necessarily manning a drill. You have a lot of jobs in, a lot of truckers, welders things like that. A lot of those skill sets these people have are very transferable over to, like, construction or transportation, warehousing that type of thing,” said St. Jeor.

One oil worker said there is no happy medium when it comes to his line of work.

“I haul oil, I mean I haul water, to sit there in a truck waiting for a phone call whether you’re going to work that day or not, it’s gut-wrenching. I got bills piling up; I’ve got to take care of the truck because my mother owns it,” said oil hauler Kyle Taylor.

He doesn’tdisagreethere are jobs, but says he’d be making less money doing the same amount of work.

“It’s a win-lose situation. You’re going to come home and be with family, which is really important, but you can only be able to afford so much,” Taylor said.

Other than job creation, the falling gas prices can also help drive the economy because it’s cheaper for companies to distribute their products.

Economists say the cheaper gas prices will also bring in more tourism, because more people are driving and driving greater distances.