Big job gains in Feb reiterate that Biden Boom continues in Wisconsin

We knew February's jobs numbers were good in America in general, but we found out this week that they were especialy strong in Wisconsin.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today released the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) preliminary employment estimates for the month of February 2022. The data shows that Wisconsin unemployment rate declined to 2.9 percent in February, down from 3.0 percent in January. The data also showed that Wisconsin added 20,700 private sector jobs from January 2022 to February 2022.

That 2.9% unemployment rate places Wisconsin as 1 of 12 states with unemployment below 3%, and makes the large gain of jobs all the more impressive since we are near maxed-out. In addition, January's total jobs numbers were revised higher by 3,400, putting us 22,000 jobs ahead of what was reported just 2 weeks ago.

The 2.9 unemployment rate makes that gain of jobs feel a little too good to be true, and I'd expect it to be leveled off some as further revisions and benchmarking comes in over later month. But it reiterates how strong this Biden Boom has been in Wisconsin, and even though some may grumble about inflation, I'd rather have higher inflation with 2.9% unemployment than low inflation with unemployment stuck at the 4.4% we were at a year ago.

February is a good month to use as a comparison, as February 2020 was the peak month for jobs in both Wisconsin and America before the COVID pandemic broke out full force. And Erik Gunn of the Wisconsin Examiner noted that much of the COVID-induced losses have now been regained, with more people working than ever in our state.

The economic sector with the largest job growth in the last 12 months was leisure and hospitality, which gained 40,500 jobs since February 2021. Employers in that sector, which includes bars, restaurants, lodging, recreation and entertainment, are back to about 97% of the jobs that existed in February 2020. In February 2022, 3.05 million people reported that they were working in Wisconsin, according to DWD. Two years earlier, that number was just under 3 million. The number of nonfarm wage and salary jobs in February 2022 was 2.92 million, compared with 2.99 million in February 2020.

Gunn and the Examiner stretched out this point on Twitter, and how these numnbers show the foolishness of the WMC/WisGOP arguments about how to increase Wisconsin's maxed-out work force.

They're not all home sitting on the couch? /s
More WI workers said in February they were employed than said so 2 years ago, just before #COVID_19. But employers still have 71k fewer jobs. @erikgunn on Thursday's numbers from @WIWorkforcehttps://t.co/zB6Egbh0yw

— Wisconsin Examiner (@WIExaminer) March 25, 2022

Not at all, as Wisconsin's workforce participation rate is sitting at 66.4%, more than 4 points higher than the US average. And the number of Wisconsinites saying that they had jobs has gone up every month since Biden took office, and continued rising after expanded unemployment benefits were cut off in September 2021.

But if Team WMC/WisGOP is truly worried about finding ways to grow our state's work force numbers and economic competitiveness, I found some good suggestions.

If we want to grow our workforce and our economy, we need to remove barriers to employment. That means increasing childcare access and affordability, making workforce training more accessible, protecting workers' rights, and more — not tearing down our social support structures.

— Elizabeth Shimek (@ElizShim) March 25, 2022

Funny how those "business leaders" aren't keen on these real solutions. And even though they're benefitting from the Biden Boom that continues, they'll never give credit to the direct investment and income supports that have gone a long way toward making it happen.