Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Sunk Near the Bottom of the Barrel - Wisconsin Job Creation. Thank God for Indiana, Georgia, Missouri, Delaware, Rhode Island and Arkansas!



The Governor, back in April, having great fun at Illinois' expense.





Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued  the October 2011 figures for job creation by states and large metropolitan areas.    The results are here.   Wisconsin ranks seventh from the bottom of the fifty-state barrel in job creation over the one-year period, October 2010 to October 2011.  We beat only the six sad states mentioned in the header above.

During that one year period, Wisconsin saw 5,500 new non-farm jobs created.   That represented an increase in employment in Wisconsin of two-tenths (0.2%) of a percent.  By contrast, Minnesota increased its non-farm jobs by 0.7%, Iowa by 0.9%, and Michigan by 1.2%. 

And what about our fourth border state?  Remember the Governor erecting the "Open For Business" signs at the Illinois border back in April, while calling out Governor Quinn by name as a vicious tax and spending profligate who could be counted on to drive Illinois businesses into our welcoming arms?  At the time, I talked about it here, and speculated that the stunt might come back to haunt the Governor.  Well, while we increased our non-farm employment in Wisconsin by 5,500 jobs or 0.2%, Illinois increased its labor force by 62,000 jobs or by 1.1%.  Maybe those "Open for Business" signs needed some flashing neon lights.

3 comments:

  1. Fairly, you have been posting the numbers as they come up, including the very early days when it appeared as if Walker might even make his 250K -- and you said so.

    So you may be forgiven for serving a slice of schadenfreude pie here.

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  2. "...signs needed some flashing neon lights."

    Or were merely facing the wrong way. Whoopsie!

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  3. @ lupus: I am not taking glee in these results. I wish they were much improved, even if they served to improve the public perception of the gov's performance. I have lots of reasons to be unhappy with him apart from this stumble on the job pledge. I did like the recipe however!

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