June Wis jobs report - things are really good

Right before Donald Trump spoke in Milwaukee on Thursday night, we got a big Wisconsin jobs report for June.

Place of Residence Data: Wisconsin’s unemployment rate remained at 2.9 percent in June, 1.2 percentage points below the national rate of 4.1 percent. Wisconsin’s labor force decreased 100 over the month and increased 4,000 over the year. The number of people employed increased 600 over the month to a record-high 3,048,600 employed.

Place of Work Data: Total nonfarm jobs increased 9,400 over the month and increased 30,900 over the year to a record 3,048,000 jobs. Private sector jobs also increased, adding 6,700 over the month and 25,100 over the year to a record-high 2,639,000 private jobs.

In addition, 1,200 of the seasonally-adjusted loss of 1,500 jobs in May was revised away, so this is a net gain of 10,600 jobs over the last state jobs report.

And it was largely good news throughout the report. Construction gained 900 jobs and 500 were added in manufacturing, meaning there was even more people added in those sectors than you usually get in June. Professional and Business Services had a large increase of 4,100, and leisure and hospitality also had higher than normal Summer hiring (+1,600 on a seasonally adjusted basis, and +17,200 in raw numbers).

State government also contributed 3,800 jobs to the June gains, but that comes after 4,600 jobs in that same sector were lost in May. Both seem related to the fact that UW schools let out earlier than normal, meaning jobs were “lost” earlier than the models would anticipate, and then come back as “gains” as June. Still a net loss of 800 in state government over the 2 months, but no biggie either way.

For the household survey, it continued a trend we’ve seen for the last three months – labor force staying around the same, and a slight increase of Wisconsinites listing themselves as “employed”.

That’s a good combination to have, but also shows a state that is likely near its capacity, and continues the challenge of attracting people to our state.

One way is through better wages, which does seem to have been happening in the last 12 months in our state, to a point where inflation-adjusted wages are well above where we were before the COVID pandemic.

I don't think we're going to continue at a pace of 9,400 jobs gained a month. But it's undeniable that Wisconsin's jobs market is in a great place, and if anything, it's gotten better in 2024, in contrast to the slowing down that we've seen in the national jobs stats. ).