More job losses in October. Maybe a new, less crooked Guv can make us "open for business"

Even though Scott Walker has less than 8 weeks left in his Reign of Error, it still doesn’t mean there isn’t more data coming in to judge his record as Governor. This includes the most recent Wisconsin jobs report, which was released on Thursday.

In brief, seasonally adjusted estimates show:

• Place of Residence Data: Wisconsin's preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October remained unchanged at 3 percent. This was the 9th straight month that the state's unemployment rate stood at 3 percent or less. Earlier in 2018, Wisconsin's achieved its lowest unemployment rate in the history of the state, 2.8 percent. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate was 68.4 percent, more than five percentage points higher than the national rate of 62.9 percent.

• Place of Work Data: From October 2017 to October 2018, Wisconsin added 32,000 private sector jobs and 20,000 manufacturing jobs. Both increases were deemed as statistically significant by BLS. Since 2010, Wisconsin has added 53,700 manufacturing jobs and 32,400 construction jobs.

Notice what’s not mentioned? The actual jobs numbers for October. And even though there’s no campaign left to complement, Scott Walker’s DWD is still working as a PR outlet. Because they don’t want people to see these numbers.

The unemployment rate stayed at 3.0%, but it wasn’t because of any kind of job growth. Instead, it was because Wisconsin lost both people working and those available for work in October.

Household survey, October 2018 Wisconsin
Employed -6,700
Labor Force -6,700
“Unemployed” 0

Payrolls also reflected this decline, both in October, and in the revisions for the prior month.

October 2018 jobs, Wisconsin
All jobs -3,500
Private sector jobs -1,600

Sept 2018 revisions, Wisconsin
All jobs -3,000 (-4,100 total)
Private sector jobs +1,300 (+400 total)

Put this together with private sector losses in August, and the record of the last 3 months is bad.

Aug 2018 – Oct 2018 jobs, Wisconsin
All jobs -6,000
Private sector jobs -1,900

These new numbers mean that right on the eve of last week’s election, the Walker jobs gap was around 155,000, and we were STILL below 250,000 private sector jobs since Walker took office – 4 years later that Scotty claimed we would get there.

Speaking of our Fair Governor, how fitting that this jobs report comes out on the same day that Walker came out of hiding to ask for one last corporate handout before he leaves office.

There is no long-term solution other than the bill that will save these jobs. Leadership requires action and failure to act will lead to losing hundreds of really good paying jobs at Kimberly Clark.

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) November 15, 2018

Yes, because after 8 years of underperformance, the last thing we need is for you to hang one more economic albatross around the necks of Wisconsinites on your way out the door.

Sorry Scotty, you failed us enough over the years, which goes a long way towards explaining why you’re searching for your first real adult job these days.