Badgers v. Illini. We're behind in the Job Creation Contest Governor Walker declared.

Versus

Oh no.  Not another post on jobs!

I'll make it short.  Here is the Wisconsin November Job Report.  Here is the Illinois November Job Report.  Governor Walker threw down on Governor Quinn earlier this year over how his budgetary reforms were setting Wisconsin up to outpace Illinois in job creation.

Here are the facts:

Illinois population in 2010 census - 12,830,632

Wisconsin population in 2010 census - 5,686,986

Illinois population is 2.26 times the population of the Badger State.

Total Non-Farm Job creation in Illinois over the last 12 months - 57,000
Total Non-Farm Job creation in Wisconsin over the last 12 months - 4,500

Illinois created 12.66 times as many non-farm jobs.

Total Private Sector Non-Farm Jobs created in Illinois over the last 12 months - 66,600

Total Private Sector Non-Farm Jobs created in Wisconsin over the last 12 months- 16,600

Illinois created 4 times as many Private Sector Non-Farm Jobs as Wisconsin.

The difference between the Total Non Farm Jobs ratio and the Total Private Sector Non-Farm Jobs ratio results from the fact that Wisconsin has shed government jobs at a faster rate than Illinois. You might think that is a good thing, unless you were an owner of a grocery store, or a plumbing company, or an appliance store, or frankly any kind of business that depends on consumers making decent wages spending money with your business.  In that case you probably don't care who signs the consumers' paychecks.