The office of Governor Scott Walker released the latest statistics on employment in Wisconsin compared to last year on Thursday. We asked the Walker Administration for the statistics going back to January 2011, when Walker took office, as well. While Walker is still short of his 2010 election campaign pledge to create 250,000 jobs, the numbers show progress on every front, including record low unemployment:
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is now 3.2 percent, down from 8 percent. The number of employed individuals in Wisconsin is up 8.4 percent over 2011, with most of that increase (232,600 jobs) in the private sector. Manufacturing jobs are up 10.5 percent since 2011.
The last time unemployment was 3.2 percent in Wisconsin was February 2000, according to the Walker Administration. With the low unemployment, there is the expected private sector wage growth. The latest quarterly census figures show total private sector wages in Wisconsin have grown 3.9 percent from the second quarter of last year to the second quarter of 2017.
