I tend to hit the "next channel"" button when political ads come on, but you might have seen this one this Spring during the recall election campaign. It involves the Guv bragging about jobs being created under his watch in a report that "the government released."
Well, actually "the government" was Walker's own administration, who sent their findings on the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages (QCER) to D.C. for the Bureau of Labor Statistics to check out. A week before the election, Walker claimed that the Feds had accepted that 23,000+ number as fact, and the Journal-Sentinel's Politifact gutlessly said it was "half-true" because the BLS had indeed received the report, but didn't challenge whether the jobs number was confirmed or correct.
It turns out that the "23,000 job increase" claim is not half-true, but A PANTS ON FIRE LIE, as the BLS said today Wisconsin only added 19,551 jobs in 2011, making Wisconsin a pathetic 43rd in % of jobs added in the U.S., and worst in the Midwest. And if you click on the QCEW's handy interactive tool, you'll see the numbers weren't even that good for Walker and the Wisconsin GOP. In fact, going inside the Wisconsin numbers on the report, you'll see that Jim Doyle and the Democrats should be the ones given the credit, and Walker's policies stopped the decent job growth the state was enjoying in 2010 and the first part of 2011.
Wisc. year-over year job change, QCER
Dec. 2009-Dec. 2010- 33,660
Dec. 2010- Dec. 2011- 19,551 (42.0% decrease)
And it's even worse when you look at what happened once Walker's budget took over after June 2011.
Wisc. year-over year job change, QCER
Dec. 2009- Dec. 2010- +33,660
June 2010- June 2011- +25,308
Dec. 2010- June 2011 (Doyle/ Dem)- +42,121
June 2011- Dec. 2011 (Walker-WisGOP)- -22,570
You're reading that right, the state had 22,570 FEWER people working in the 6 months following Walker's budget being signed. Now, some of that is seasonal effects to be sure, but the state only lost 16,813 jobs in this report for the last 6 months of 2010, so we lost nearly 6,000 more workers after the Walker budget became law. There's a clear slowing that happens once Scotty comes into office, and as I mentioned before, Wisconsin was doing better under Jim Doyle and the Dems.
The wages part of the equation isn't pretty in the QCER either. The report lists Wisconsin as 42nd in the U.S for wages over the last 12 months, with weekly wages DOWN 2.4% compared to the end of 2010. Gee, busting unions, lowering work standards and allowing corporations to hoard more profits due to tax breaks drops wages for all employees? You don't say!
By the way, don't believe that Walker fairy tale about how all of a sudden business will start hiring now that the recall election's over. This week's unemployment claims report shows Wisconsin claims went up over 1,000 for the second straight week, with both weeks coming after the recall election happened. In fact, jobless claims have gone up for each of the last 4 weeks, and is up more than 2,000 than it was at the start of May.
Wisc. job claims, May-June 2012
May 5- 9,993
May 12- 10,274 (+341)
May 19- 9,034 (-1,240)
May 26- 9,479 (+446)
June 2- 9,692 (+213)
June 9- 10,964 (+1,272)
June 16- 12,092 (+1,128)
And last week is when they do the monthly jobs report survey. Ruh roh, Scotty! But don't worry, I'm sure there will be some other reason why Wisconsin continues to fail despite Scott Walker getting almost every policy he wanted in the last 18 months. And you know why he'll come up with some excuse? Well, I'll let Henry tell you.
I'll go with "Obamacare being upheld" as the big Walker lie for the next month, till something else comes along. Of course, I'd take the job growth in 2010 after Obamacare was first passed, and I'm betting a whole lot of WisGOP legislators running for re-election are hoping the same.
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