Walker Not to Blame for Job Numbers - It's The Poorly Trained Labor Force

President Obama and Governor Walker at Mitchell Field on February 15.




In today's Los Angeles Times there is an article about Scott Walker's appearance at the White House yesterday during the National Governors Association meetings which started this weekend:

At this weekend’s National Governors Assn, meeting, many of Walker’s Republican colleagues were happily condemning the president and arguing that any improvement in the economy is happening despite, not because, of his policies. But Walker was walking a fine line.

"I'm not worried about the politics of it.  I just want results," Walker said as he left a White House meeting between the president and the nation's governors Monday.  "Obviously, as the economy improves it helps people like me, it helps people like him.... But ultimately, I want a strong recovery for the people of Wisconsin."

Walker said he asked Obama to continue to use the bully pulpit to encourage more Americans to pursue careers in the manufacturing sector, as the president did during his trip to Wisconsin earlier this month.

"One of our biggest problems is not just unemployment; it's the fact that we have job openings in manufacturing, but we just don't have the skilled workers," he said, adding that Obama was receptive to his request.

The January job numbers press release from Wisconsin  DWD is always delayed annually until early March, followed just two weeks later with the February job numbers.  So on March 8, next Thursday we will see how the state's economy did creating jobs during January, and on Thursday, March 22, we will see about February.

The state has fallen well short on the Governor's job creation promise, actually under-performing all the Midwestern states.   In the final quote above, we can see a glimpse of the Governor's strategy for dealing with the poor results.  It is not his policies, but the lack of skills of the workforce that is holding back the recovery in Wisconsin.