Wisconsin falls further behind with a mediocre July jobs report

As the State Assembly debated the Foxconn package today, the state’s Department of Workforce Development dropped the July jobs report for Wisconsin. And on the top level, it looks like a lot of “Meh.”

Place of work data: Based on preliminary data, the state added 26,500 total non-farm jobs and 25,000 private-sector jobs from July 2016 to July 2017, with a significant year-over-year gain of 9,600 manufacturing jobs. The state added 3,600 total non-farm and 100 private sector jobs over the month.

• Place of residence data: A preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.2 percent in July 2017, up slightly from 3.1 percent in June. The rate remains lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in July 2017. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate decreased slightly to 68.8 percent and continues to outpace the U.S. rate of 62.9 percent in July.

Mediocre numbers for July, but the bigger news hit with revisions to June’s figures, and not to the good side.

June 2017 Wisconsin jobs revisions
All jobs -4,100
Private sector jobs -2,300

So you combine with July’s figures, and that adds up to LOSSES of 500 jobs overall and 2,200 in the private sector. Not the right direction. Combined with job losses in May, this means that Wisconsin is reporting fewer jobs now than they were back in April.

And the DWD’s happy talk of “26,500 total jobs and 25,000 private sector jobs” over the last year also sucks. Last month those 12-month figures were 38,400 and 35,700, respectively, and it now puts the state’s job growth rate under 1% for the last 12 months, which is well below the US rate over the last year.

Rate of job growth, July 2016 – July 2017
All jobs
US +1.49%
Wis. +0.90%

Private Sector
US +1.68%
Wis. +0.99%

And the Walker jobs gap has grown larger as a result, now over 115,000 jobs for both private sector and total jobs.





Also, take a look at what happened on the other side of the St. Croix River while we were stagnating in July.

Minnesota employers added 7,700 jobs in July, according to seasonally adjusted figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

In addition, June’s employment figures were revised upward by 4,900 jobs to bring total gains that month to 9,300 jobs. Minnesota has added 66,701 jobs in the past year, an increase of 2.3 percent, compared with a national growth rate of 1.5 percent during that period.

That's 2 1/2 times the job growth that Wisconsin has had since July 2016. And Minnesota isn’t destroying their budget to hand out $3 billion to a foreign corporation and carving up environmental standards in the process. Why aren’t we looking at the places that are actually succeeding in 2017, instead of doubling down on the same failed giveaways?

And with even more evidence today that the Walker/WisGOP Way is continuing to leave this state behind, why would anyone trust the claims of this Governor, WEDC and the GOP-puppets in the Legislature? This is true not only in how Robbin’ Vos and other WisGOP crooks making the laughable claim that their “reforms” have improved the state’s economic situation (the reality is more like “Thanks, Obama!”), but also when it comes to thinking that the Fox-con development will somehow change things for the better for the entire state.

This Reign of Error has gotta end, or else we aren’t ever going to be economically competitive with the rest of the country for decades, if ever.