Although both Wisconsin political parties seem to agree jobs are the most important issue in this campaign cycle, disagreement remains not just in policy ideas, but also in which measures should be trusted to count how many jobs have been created.

Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development released two different employment reports August 16. The first, the monthly July jobs report, showed a loss of 6,500 jobs. The second was the quarterly jobs report showing a gain of 28,000 jobs from March 2011 to March 2012.

In July, Wisconsin lost 6,500 jobs and the state’s unemployment rate increased to 7.3 percent from 7.0 percent, as the national unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent.

Earlier during the day, DWD released another jobs report, which showed positive job creation and is described as more accurate. The numbers were described throughout the report as “actual jobs data,” as it comes from a nearly universal sample of Wisconsin employers, unlike the monthly jobs data.

When asked about the jobs reports, Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Nathan Conrad said Gov. Scott Walker has a positive record in Wisconsin job growth despite a weak national economy.

“Gov. Walker and his allies in the state Legislature have worked tirelessly to bring jobs back to Wisconsin,” Conrad said. “The dismal economic outlook nationwide brought on by the failed economic policies of the Obama administration have made it hard for them to be able to help job creation grow.”

The release of quarterly reports comes with some criticism; as the report notes, the national Bureau of Labor Statistics has not yet verified the data released by DWD. The first time DWD decided to release these numbers was in May, a few weeks before Walker’s recall election.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca released a statement Aug. 16 expressing his disappointment with the job numbers and said Walker should call a special session to focus on job creation.

“For the second time, Gov. Scott Walker and his DWD released quarterly jobs unverified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics immediately in advance of bad monthly job loss numbers for Wisconsin being released by the federal government,” Barca said in the statement. “Having DWD spend time and energy to cover up Republicans’ unsuccessful record on job creation is wrong.”

Barca found that since December 2010, this same quarterly data shows that Wisconsin has lost 26,946 jobs.

As DWD spokesperson Dennis Winters explained, the quarterly reports are not seasonally adjusted and must be measured in year-long spans to be accurate, which Barca did not do.

Winters said the quarterly census is based on a census of about 96 percent of Wisconsin employers and is considered more accurate but also comes with a significant lag, whereas the monthly Current Employment Statistics are reported every month but are subject to large revisions later on. The CES is a sample of about 3.5 percent of Wisconsin employers.

Winters said both usually showed the same data, but unlike other economic indicators, the monthly reports have lately been negative, which he said “stood out like a sore thumb.” Despite the time lag, this difference prompted DWD to release the quarterly numbers.