Sept Wis jobs report - more jobs, more in labor force, but more unemployed

This afternoon featured the release of another monthly jobs report for Wisconsin, which showed September to be another month that had more jobs, and higher unemployment.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today released the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job totals for the month of September 2023, which showed Wisconsin's total non-farm jobs hit another record high of 3,017,800. This is 34,500 more jobs than a year ago and an increase of 8,300 over the previous month.

Preliminary employment estimates for September 2023 showed Wisconsin's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.1%. The total labor force grew by 5,400 and employment decreased by 1,800 over the month. The state's total labor force participation rate increased to 65.8% during that time.

The good news is that Wisconsin continues to add jobs, with its 6th straight month of total jobs exceeding 3 million.

That report also said construction jobs continue to be added in Wisconsin, and even manufacturing had more jobs in September for the first time since February.

But it’s also the first month in 2023 that where Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has gone back above 3%, so that seems worthy to keep an eye on. It goes along with information we got on the state-level JOLTS report, where (seasonally adjusted) layoffs and discharges increased from 25,000 in July to 47,000 in August. We did see another month of a higher labor force in September, and we now have more people in the work force than we’ve had in nearly 6 years.

This leaves us back to a similar percentage of Wisconsinites working that we had when the COVID pandemic first broke out in early 2020. And it underscores the bigger picture with this Wisconsin jobs report - it's still a good spot to be in, near full employment, with a labor force that is finally growing again.