As everyone knows by now, Wyoming could use thousands of additional workers, and we're not above going to Michigan or raiding RV rallies in Arizona to find them.

But when we get to those far-flung places, we might have company. When it comes to a scarcity of labor, everyone in the Rocky Mountain West seems to be pretty much in the same boat.

In January, Wyoming's unemployment rate fell to 2.6 percent, its lowest level since 1979. The same month, the unemployment rate in Montana was 2.7 percent, the lowest on record, and 3 percent in Idaho, also the lowest on record.

Utah hit a record low of 2.5 percent in December. The Deseret News observed that the state's high birth rate was expected to condemn the state to a perpetual surplus of labor, but no longer. A Zions Bank report a while back said even such presumably high priority projects as the redevelopment of downtown Salt Lake City by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could be delayed by a lack of workers.

Colorado has experienced higher unemployment than other states in the region - 4.1 percent in January - but that doesn't mean there aren't labor shortages in key sectors. The Department of Corrections has floated the idea of using convicts as farm workers. It seems most of the migrant workers fled the state after the Legislature passed a tough law against illegal immigration.

And finding enough good help isn't limited to the United States. A recent report by Manpower Inc. found that 46 percent of the employers surveyed in Peru and 45 percent in Japan said they would have hired more permanent professional staff over the preceding six months if they could have found people with the right skills.

In the United States, 45 percent of employers surveyed answered in the affirmative to the same question. By region, the results were 42 percent in the Midwest, 51 percent in the Northeast, 45 percent in the South and 45 percent in the West.

In terms of U.S. economic sectors, 51 percent of durable goods manufacturing firms said they would have hired more people, followed by transportation and utilities at 50 percent, and finance, insurance and real estate at 50 percent.

Add to all this the looming retirement of millions of baby boomers and it seems past time for the U.S. to seriously plan a cogent way forward in addressing long-term labor force requirements, including a rational program for foreign guest workers.