Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Picking up from April Wisconsin jobs wreckage

We already knew April's jobs numbers in Wisconsin were awful, but we've had a couple of backup reports reiterating how bad in the last 2 days. First of all, let's go with the mass layoff report from the BLS, which measures unemployment claims resulting from large-scale shutdowns at one place. And again, Wisconsin has a notorious spot among states in and around our region.

April mass layoff events, Midwest
Wisc 44
Ill. 38
Ohio 34
Mizzou 27
Mich 23
Ind. 17
Iowa 13
Minn 8

This is even more damning when you consider Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana have populations higher than Wisconsin's, and should be ahead of us if all things are equal. We're also Number 1 in this group for total unemployment claims resulting from mass layoffs when adjusting for workforce population, and 3rd in this group (behind Illinois and Indiana) for total claims overall. It also coincides with Wisconsin's 4th in the nation status for mass layoffs for the last 3 months of 2011, and it shows things still aren't turning around, no matter how many times Walker runs that false ad during my Brewer game.

Another example of the drops in employment was in today's local Wisconsin jobs report, which shows the unemployment and job amounts in counties and cities. And in continuing with an overall theme of the last few months, it's the rural areas that are taking it the most on the chin, while Northeast Wisconsin has kept its heads above water.

Year-over-year change in jobs, Wisconsin metro areas
Green Bay +4,300 (+2.59%)
Oshkosh-Neenah +1,600 (+1.71%)
La Crosse +1,000 (+1.35%)
Appleton +900 (+0.78%)
Fond du Lac +700 (+1.55%)
Sheboygan +300 (+0.52%)
Wausau -100 (-0.15%)
Racine -500 (-0.66%)
Janesville -800 (-1.31%)
Eau Claire -1,500 (-1.87%)
Madison -2,700 (-0.77%)
Milwaukee -8,400 (-1.03%)
Rest of State -11,000 (-1.47%)
State total -21,400 (-0.78%)

Looking at those numbers, it's interesting to note the Walker Administration's subhead to the jobs release was "Milwaukee area loses 2,100 over the month, 8,400 over the year." I'm sure that was totally coincidental on the Walker boys' part. Hmmm, wonder why they didn't mention their larger job losses by % in rural Wisconsin, Eau Claire or Janesville? And why they didn't mention that the red counties of Ozaukee and Waukesha have also been passed by the rest of the state when it comes to declines in the unemployment rate?

And funny how they now have full faith in the BLS numbers when last week, they were saying the BLS numbers weren't accurate and that they had their own magic stats which showed jobs gained? Well kiddos, which metric do we want to use today?

The scrambling by this desperate administration to run away from their pathetic record brings only one thing to mind. YAKETY SAX!



Time to give these clowns the hook.

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