LARSON Weekly REPORT - August 25, 2011

WI State Senator Chris Larson - 7th District

Job Creation in Wisconsin
As Wisconsin continues to slowly navigate its way out of the most recent recession, job creation and unemployment reduction remain at the top of our priority list. Therefore, I am providing an update on the status of job creation in Wisconsin and how our neighbors have and continue to be affected as our state struggles to escape the clutches of this recession.
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Wisconsinites Struggle to Find Work
Wisconsin has consistently posted unemployment rates lower than the national average since the most recent recession began in 2007. However, our state's unemployment rate remains an issue of constant concern as it has been steadily increasing over the past few months, virtually negating any progress that was made prior to Governor Walker's inauguration.

Please view the chart below, which shows our state's unemployment rate compared to the U.S. over the past year.

Chart Courtesy of BadgerStat

These statistics illustrate that just one year ago, Wisconsin faced an 8% unemployment rate, which has only decreased by 0.2% over the course of that time to 7.8% statewide. Unfortunately, our local community has been especially hard-hit by the economic downturn. According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), Milwaukee County is currently facing an unemployment rate of 9.6%, which means about 45,456 of our neighbors who have been displaced from their jobs continue to search for work.

Clearly more needs to be done by our governor and his administration in order to help our neighbors who have been knocked down by these hard economic times get back on their feet.
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Job Growth Continues to Hit Road Blocks
Our state lost a total of 171,400 jobs between January of 2008 and January of 2010, and is still struggling to make-up ground and turn our job growth figures around. According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, "Most of the jobs lost in the recession came from the two largest sectors: Manufacturing (75,800) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (38,300)."

Wisconsin job growth progress has proven to be slow and unstable. Please view the chart below to see Wisconsin's monthly job change over the past year.

Chart Courtesy of BadgerStat

As you can see from this table, intermixed with several months of job growth, Wisconsin has also experienced three months of severe job losses and three months of relatively little change.

The fluctuations in job growth are expected to have a significant impact on the future success of our community. In a June 2011 report, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce stated that "...there has been some slippage in the aggregate number of positive indicators over 2011's first six months giving some pause for concern about the strength of future growth."

There is also some concern over the types of jobs being created. According to Governor Walker, much of Wisconsin's job growth can be attributed to the state's tourism industry. Such jobs are often seasonal and will soon disappear causing unemployment to rise even further and the number of jobs created to drop once again. Placing all our eggs in the tourism basket is only a temporary fix and will result in the same catastrophic results as putting a band-aid on a wound that requires stitches. Instead, we should be focusing our efforts on creating high-quality, year-round jobs that will translate into stable economic recovery for our community and our state.