Walker's DWD tries to deceive public, ends up showing another way Wis is losing

I was cruising the WHeeler Report when I saw this pop up from Scott Walker's Department of Workforce Development.

Great News: Since Dec. 2010, #Wisconsin's private sector wages are up 25%: https://t.co/N87YGK9PAe #WIWorking pic.twitter.com/8TfPQEgcRn

— Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (@WIWorkforce) June 8, 2018

Wages are up 25% in Wisconsin since December 2010? Which would be twice as fast as the CPI increase of 12.5% in that time? That seems like BS on its face, but let’s go back to the trusty QCEW map site, click on Wisconsin’s private sector wages and see where they’re getting it from.

Average private sector weekly wage, Wis
Q4 2010 $835
Q4 2017 $962 (+15.21%)

So yes, we have had an increase in real wages in Wisconsin since the end of 2010 (by a whopping 2.4% total over those 7 years), but it sure isn’t 25% on either a nominal or inflation-adjusted basis. So where are they getting this number from?

Here’s where. They’re going on the total amount of money that was paid in wages to private sector workers. This basically multiples the added jobs that Wisconsin saw during 7 years of the Obama Recovery with the higher weekly wages that were paid in 2017 vs 2010.

Wisconsin
Total private sector wages paid Q4 2010 $24.73 billion
Total private sector wages paid Q4 2017 $31.08 billion (+25.66%)

The Walker DWD is trying to peddle the impression that the average person is making 25% more than he/she was making in December 2010. THAT ISN’T TRUE, and they know it isn’t true. It is disgusting deception.

You know what is factually true, that this “25% growth” figure in Wisconsin is well below what the nation’s wages have “grown” by in those 7 years. You can find the national QCEW figures at this site, and while Wisconsin has slightly outpaced the US’s gains in average private sector wages (+15.21% vs 14.49% for the US), the US has added a much higher rate of jobs (+15.21% vs +9.40% in Wis). Which means we are losing in the stat that Walker's DWD was propping up.

US
Total private sector wages paid Q4 2010 $1,361.25 trillion
Total private sector wages paid Q4 2017 $1,793.98 billion (+31.79%)
Wisconsin change private sector wages Q4 2010 – Q4 2017 (+25.66%)

So the increase in total private sector wages isn’t anything to crow about, and in fact is yet more proof that Wisconsin has badly underperformed the nation when it comes to creating prosperity under Scott Walker.

Hey DWD – your job is not to be an outgrowth of the Walker 2018 campaign. Stop cherry-picking various stats and portraying them as “analysis”, and actually DO WHAT WE PAY YOU TO DO – help people who have been laid off, connect job-seekers with employers needing workers…and maybe tell Scotty’s buddies at WMC to pay some fair wages to move the pipeline along.

But I guess if I was a political hack in the Walker Administration, I guess I’d be worried about having to file an unemployment report with the DWD in early 2019. So I suppose that explains why they spend more time BSing about jobs numbers than actually trying to improve Wisconsin’s economy.