DAILY WISCONSIN

Employment

Economy, Employment

Average

It also seems that both of these numbers were affected by the brutal weather of mid-February (when the employment survey was made). The largest job losses for February were in construction (-31,000), and it seems likely that many lower-wage part-timers had hours reduced due to the weather, which would mean more wages were earned by higher-wage full-time workers.

So while the top lines of 20,000 jobs may make you think “uh oh”, and a 3.4% annual increase in wages may make you think “great!”, I’m not sure either apply here. Both are the opposite of what we saw in the January report, while the average of those 2 months is mostly on line with where we’ve been.

Via Jake’s Wisconsin Funhouse: Feb US jobs decline – to the norm

Economy, Employment, Scott Walker

Weren’t as good  

I told you to look out for the new Wisconsin jobs report today, coming on the heels of the bad performance in the “gold standard” Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages(QCEW) which I discussed in this post.

That’s because the January report would feature revisions based on that QCEW report. And sure enough, that Wisconsin jobs report came out today with sizable downgrades in job growth.

Revisions from previously-reported Dec 2018 Wis jobs figures 
All jobs -17,100
Private sector jobs -13,400
Manufacturing -12,900

Via Jake’s Wisconsin Funhouse: As predicted, Walker job growth and total people working weren’t as good as the year said

Employment, Misconduct

More than a nip 

[The Australian Fair Work] full bench said Mr Urso’s evidence could ‘simply not be accepted’ saying he ‘could not seriously have thought that a drink in the nature of a peach martini would only contain one standard nip of alcohol,’ it said. ‘The evidence tends to suggest that he had significantly more than five drinks, in which case ‘free pouring’ loses whatever capacity it had to exonerate him,’ it said.”

Via Althouse: “A Qantas flight attendant who got blind drunk on peach martinis in a New York bar during a layover has lost his appeal to win his job back.”

Economy, Employment

Bad Data Concealing Bad Growth 

A couple of weeks back, I noticed that the “gold standard” Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) released the top line numbers, and it showed Wisconsin continuing to stay far behind the US rate of job growth. However, this only covered all jobs and urban areas, so I wanted to see further information with more detail.

Today, the full “gold standard report was released, and as usual, feel free to go to the QCEW map site to break down the data by state and county.

As predicted, Wisconsin’s numbers were bad for the September 2017-September 2018 time period, and were well behind the numbers the Walker Administration were claiming before the November elections.

Via Jake’s Wisconsin Funhouse: Confirmed- Walker Admin overstated Wis’s bad job growth before election.

Economy, Employment

Still Behind After All These Years

The latest Federal employment figures show Wisconsin to be a regional laggard which actually lost 300 private sector jobs in February, added only a paltry 18,600 private sector jobs in the year from February, 2017 to February, 2018, and is still 20,000 private sector jobs below the 250,000 Walker repeatedly promised in his 2010 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns to create by January,  2015, the Capital Times reports.

Via The Political Environment: New data show Walker’s continuing Wisconsin jobs’ fail

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Still bad 

And adding an average of 2,700 jobs a month in Wisconsin is less than half what we should be adding if we want our job growth to keep up with the rest of the country, and it was even worse in the 6 months before then. This means the Walker jobs growth has blow up wide in since this time last year, getting bigger by more than 32,000 private sector jobs, and reaching over 103,500 jobs during the 5-year reign of error known as the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: New job benchmarks reiterate same story- Wisconsin staying behind.

America, Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Still Far Behind America on Jobs

You may have seen the headlines from the latest release of the “gold standard” jobs report – the BLS’s Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages (QCEW). And as I predicted earlier this week, Wisconsin fared quite poorly.

Wisconsin continues to lag behind much of the nation in creating private sector jobs.

Figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday show the state’s growth rate during the 12 month period that ended in September of last year was 1.2 percent, compared to a national rate during that time period of 2.2 percent.

Wisconsin was listed as 36th among the states for the pace of job creation, adding 29,616 private sector jobs during the reporting period.

36th in the nation is bad enough, and is virtually no different than the 37th place Wisconsin was in for the last QCEW survey, which carried into June 2015. Perhaps just as bad is the fact that we continued to lag most of the Midwest in private sector job growth in this report, ending up 6th out of 7 states.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: The “gold standard” shows Wisconsin still well behind our neighbors.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Dead wrong on claim Wisconsin jobs are “picking up steam”

We get to see where Wisconsin matches up with the rest of the country on Wednesday, and if the last report is any indication, there is no reason to think the state isn’t much different than the 37th in the nation status it had 3 months ago. In addition, the Wisconsin DWD’s pre-release of the QCEW [Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages] numbers also indicates that Wisconsin’s month-to-month job totals will also go down when those figures are benchmarked to the QCEW as part of the January 2016 jobs release on Thursday.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: J-S is dead wrong in claim Wisconsin jobs are “picking up steam.”

Business, Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Mass Layoffs

MADISON – In a sign of growing economic turmoil, Gov. Walker’s administration quietly acknowledged over the busy holiday season that Wisconsin surpassed 10,000 layoffs last year as a result of plant closings and economic challenges. The dismal news confirms that 2015 was Wisconsin’s worst year for job losses since Gov. Walker took office – far exceeding the 6,186 workers affected by mass layoffs and plant closings in 2014. The dramatic spike in layoffs have surprised many given the strong economic growth in neighboring Midwestern states.

Via Jennifer Schilling: Layoffs hit new high under Gov. Walker » Urban Milwaukee.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

About that October jobs “boom” in Wisconsin

I’ve expressed skepticism regarding last week’s report from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development of 16,100 total jobs and 15,100 jobs being added in Wisconsin for October. And we got a follow-up note on that report on Wednesday that also makes me cock an eyebrow, this time in the form of the local jobs and unemployment rate report.

This new DWD report showed the alleged jobs gains in the state were heavily concentrated in only a few areas of the state. Also worth noting is that (for some reason) they can’t give specific seasonally-adjusted numbers for the growing Madison area, because Green County was added for that MSA in the last year….

So let’s see how these figures shake out in the next couple of months, as the seasonal adjustments level out. The large amount of mass layoffs and lower-than-projected revenues seem to belie the numbers that indicate job growth boomed in Wisconsin for October, and I’m very interested in seeing what happens as a large amount of data comes in over the next few weeks to see which direction wins out.

Via October jobs “boom” in Wisconsin not felt in many places @ Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

About those employment figures…

So between a disproportionate amount of jobs being in non-metro areas in Wisconsin, as well as the disparities between seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted jobs figures seems to indicate some adjustment that needs to shake out in the next couple of months as Summer ends and things adjust back into non-tourist season in Wisconsin. The question is which direction are those adjustments going to be made?

Via Sets of Wisconsin jobs data aren’t matching up. What gives? @ Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Lags America in Job Creation

Wisconsin ranked 30th overall in the nation in private-sector job creation during the 12 months ending in March, according to data released Thursday.

Wisconsin reported a 1.72% increase in private-sector jobs for that period, compared with the previous 12 months, according to employment numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state added 39,624 jobs.

The state’s performance compares with a 2.4% increase for the nation — continuing Wisconsin’s historic lag in job creation.

Via JSOnline.

Employment, WEDC

WEDC in No Hurry to Talk About Outsourcing with Public Money 

Madison — The head of the state’s job-creation agency is putting off Democrats who want its board to discuss outsourcing and its process for conducting background checks, saying it can’t take up the issue until October.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has been plagued with problems since it was created in 2011 to replace the state Department of Commerce.

Early on, incentives were given without background checks being done on questionable companies and the agency has not independently verified whether companies getting state aid have created the jobs they’ve said they have.

The two Democratic lawmakers on the WEDC board asked to discuss outsourcing and background checks at a board meeting in July. But agency officials said they couldn’t address the matter then because it wasn’t on the board’s agenda.

The Democrats — Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point and Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha — then asked that the matter be put on the agenda for the Sept. 24 meeting. In a letter Friday, WEDC’s secretary, Reed Hall, declined to do that because the board wouldn’t have time.

Via WEDC board puts off outsourcing issue for a month @ JS All Politics Blog.