A much-anticipated jobs report for the state found an improved outlook for the state’s job market, with both positive job growth in the private sector and a drop in the unemployment rate.

According to the Department of Workforce Development report for January, the state gained an estimated 15,700 private sector jobs between December 2011 and January 2012, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent, the lowest rate since December 2008.

“In 2011, we stabilized Wisconsin’s economy following years of steep job losses, and we put in place a foundation for job creation,” John Dipko, DWD spokesperson, said in an email to The Badger Herald. “After benchmarking and including the preliminary January 2012 data, Wisconsin gained jobs during three of the last six months.”

Rep. Roger Rivard, R-Rice Lake, characterized the numbers as encouraging. He said politicians often do not have patience in waiting for trends to develop, but the numbers show the policies of the current administration are working.

He said 94 percent of business owners say Wisconsin is heading in the right direction, and he hopes the numbers will be a long-term trend. He also called the current situation an example of “economic gardening” for improvement in the future.

“You can’t grow grass in the Gobi desert, and you can’t grow jobs in a state that doesn’t have the environment to grow jobs in,” Rivard said. “These results show [our reforms are] having an effect.”

However, Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said in a statement the statistics show since taking office, Gov. Scott Walker has overseen the loss a total of 12,500 jobs.

He said Republican lawmakers should come together with Democrats and pass legislation creating more jobs in Wisconsin.

“The nation as a whole has added jobs for each of the past 23 months,” Barca said in a statement. “We need to take advantage of that national upward trend.”

University of Wisconsin economics professor Steven Deller said DWD collects the preliminary numbers through surveying homes and businesses. These numbers are sent to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which uses additional tax data to revise the numbers.

He said the data could be off due to survey errors as well as the way information is corrected, and the bureau has revised data by huge margins in the past. For instance, in June 2012, the state reported an increase of 11,000 non-farm jobs. However, the bureau corrected this figure to a loss of 9,000 jobs, creating a difference of 20,000 jobs from the original numbers.

However, Dipko said while the monthly job estimates undergo numerous revisions and can fluctuate significantly before they are finally benchmarked, Wisconsin’s total and private-sector preliminary job gains in January 2012 span a variety of industries and are beyond the margins of error.

“Taken together, these indicators suggest growth over the month,” Dipko said.

Deller said a trend could only be established if the upward swing lasted for three months, continuing through February and March.