Awful September jobs put exclamation mark on horrible Wisconsin record

After yesterday's release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' state-by-state jobs report which showed Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in September, I wanted to update a couple of stats that look at Wisconsin's performance vs the rest of our Midwestern neighbors.

First let's start with the September report, which showed some other Midwestern states lost jobs, and that Indiana had a huge increase. But Wisconsin definitely "separated" itself from the rest.

Change in jobs, September 2016
Overall
Ind. +16,300
Ill. +7,400
Mich +5,400
Minn +1,900
Iowa -900
Ohio -3,100
Wis. -10,500

Private sector
Ind. +10,100
Ill. +6,300
Mich +4,900
Minn +300
Iowa -100
Ohio -300
Wis. -8,500

The same trend of Wisconsin lagging continues if you widen it out for the last year. Only the dysfunctional mess in Illinois keeps Wisconsin out of the Midwestern cellar over this time period.

Change in jobs, Sept 2015- Sept 2016
Overall
Mich +2.00%
Iowa +1.90%
Minn +1.61%
Ind. +1.45%
Ohio +1.35%
Wis. +1.25%
Ill. +0.73%

Private sector
Mich +2.11%
Iowa +1.96%
Minn +1.81%
Ind. +1.58%
Ohio +1.27%
Wis. +1.27%
Ill. +0.85%

But even worse is if you narrow out to the last 6 months. When you do that, Wisconsin is in a class by itself....of losing. And it looks even worse when you see the growth on the other side of the St. Croix River.

Change in jobs, March-Sept 2016
Overall
Minn +29,100
Ind. +23,100
Iowa +11,800
Ill. +9,600
Mich +6,900
Ohio +6,500
Wis. -13,000

Private sector
Minn +24,500
Ind. +21,700
Ill. +13,100
Mich +10,500
Iowa +9,100
Ohio +1,400
Wis. -11,700

And of course, we were already near the bottom of the Midwest for job growth in the 5 years before March 2016, according to the "gold standard" Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages. The list above, with Wisconsin being the only state to lose jobs, are the 6 months that have been reported since that last report ended. Ruh Roh.

So maybe it's time to pull the plug on this ALEC crap and remove the puppet politicians that have allowed this mess to happen. You wouldn't accept the Badgers or the Packers to be this horrible compared to our neighbors, so why do we accept it in something more important like jobs, schools, or quality of life?