Brutal August jobs report makes WMC, Walker spin seem absurd

Add this report to the full-blown tire fire that has been the Wisconsin GOP this week.

Private sector jobs, Wisconsin
August DOWN 6,200
July revision- DOWN 3,000
TOTAL VS LAST REPORT- DOWN 9,200

Total jobs
August- DOWN 2,900
July revision- DOWN 1,500
TOTAL VS LAST REPORT- DOWN 4,400

The downward revisions has been a remarkable recent trend, especially on the private sector number, which has seen an AVERAGE drop of nearly 5,000 jobs upon second glance over each of the last 3 months. Sure makes you wonder what the hell is going on over at DWD.

Even worse is the massive number of jobs lost in one particular area in late Summer.

Manufacturing
August jobs- DOWN 4,500
July jobs- DOWN 2,100
TOTAL VS LAST REPORT- DOWN 6,600

In addition, those downward revisions for July now means that month shed 2,200 jobs in manufacturing then, which means 6,700 lost in 2 months. We hadn’t exactly been booming when it came to adding manufacturing jobs before then, so now we have 1,700 fewer jobs in manufacturing today (467,400) than when right-to-work (for less) legislation was passed in February 2015 (469,100).

But Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce keeps telling me that work-for-less and the $209 million M&A tax credit are magical job creators, and WMC is now whining about the idea of ending that tax cut. Those “business leaders” couldn’t be wrong, could they? (oh yes they could, and they usually are).

That WMC press release claiming “manufacturing is great in Wisconsin” is especially dishonest and hilariously inaccurate after today’s disastrous report. The rest of the state isn’t doing great either. Especially since March ended 3 months of large job gains (gains that I was already suspicious of, and ones that are likely to be revised down in light of last week’s “gold standard” census report). If the monthly stats hold up, it means that we have fewer jobs now in Wisconsin than we did 5 months ago.

Total job change, Wisconsin March-Aug 2016
Private sector- DOWN 6,700
Overall- DOWN 5,500

And now our Governor plans to cut back on major freeway work in the two largest metro areas in the state just to suck up to DC lobbyist Grover Norquist? I’m sure that will turn things around in the job-shedding state of Wisconsin real fast….