Wisconsin is still in the doldrums when compared to the rest of the nation. 31st in the country in total jobs created, and 34th in the nation in the private sector. The only reason they weren't in the 40s (like I thought they'd be) is because large states like California, Texas, Michigan, Florida and Georgia had big increases, which helped explain how the overall U.S. private sector increase of 1.6%, but the median state was more like 1.3%.
That being said, Wisconsin's private sector job increase of 1.08% is still the lowest it's been since Sept. 2012, and you have to go back to September 2010 to find one lower than that. In fact, this recent Quarterly report gives us a good look at the effect of Walker policies, as Act 10 was passed into law in March 2011.
Private sector job change, Wisconsin
March 2010- March 2011 +1.90%
March 2011- March 2012 +1.79% (-0.11%)
March 2012- March 2013 +1.08% (-0.61%)
And we continue not to measure up to our Midwestern neighbors, ranking 5th out of 7 for job growth, with Michigan and Minnesota doubling us up at over 2% growth.
We'll have more on this later, including the absurdity of Scott Walker trying to take credit for adding more jobs than 28 other states, while leaving out that we have more people than 30 other states. But it is obvious that Wisconsin continues to lag the rest of the nation and its Midwestern neighbors, and with the 20,000 job loss in April still to be counted, those bad stats are in line to continue, no matter what WMC's ads try to tell you.
And in December 2010 Wisconsin gained more jobs than 38 other states. To achieved a similar 12th rank by absolute number - meaningless as that is - in March 2013 would have required topping Illinois' gain of 46,888.
ReplyDeleteBut Walker's now saying that his economic leadership just isn't as good as Quinn's. Or Dayton's. And is nearly 20 times worse at his job than Jerry Brown is at his.