Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is currently at 6.5 percent, the lowest it has been in the past five years, according to a new report from the Department of Workforce Development.
The department on Thursday released the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job numbers, which showed that from October 2012 to October 2013, 41,700 private sector jobs were created.
Despite the low unemployment rate, Wisconsin added 37 percent fewer jobs this quarter than the year before and yielded the weakest second quarter private-sector job growth in three years, Mike Tate, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement. He said this displayed an overall slowing of job creation in Wisconsin.
While some parties are feeling optimistic about the numbers, others believe the numbers are misleading.
Historically, Wisconsin has had a lower unemployment rate than the national average of 7.3 percent, Melissa Baldauff, DPW spokesperson, said. While the unemployment rates are decreasing, the number of jobs being created is nowhere near the amount Walker vowed to generate through his policies during the recall election campaign.
“At the beginning of June 2012, after the recall election, Scott Walker said that ‘unbelievable amounts of new jobs’ would be coming to the state, and we just haven’t seen them,” Baldauff said.
However, officials at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation said Walker has led a “pro-business” administration leading to a lower unemployment rate and more jobs than in the past.
“Gov. Walker has made creating jobs a major priority. He works very closely with the business community to try and meet their needs. He has eliminated a large deficit that we had when he took office. His administration is just a very pro-business administration,” Mark Maley, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation spokesperson, said.
Maley said in a survey, 94 percent of businesspeople said that they thought Wisconsin is headed in the right direction.
However, Tate said 65 percent of the state’s population believe their current economic situations will remain the same or get worse over the next year under Walker.
Baldauff said Walker’s administration had made several major mistakes in getting Wisconsin back on a track to a strong economic recovery, including devoting excessive time and energy on radical social issues as opposed to focusing on creating jobs like they promised. She said Walker is also failing to create a strong economy with a backbone of “good, family-supporting jobs.”
“I think the first big mistake that [Walker’s administration] made was cutting 1.6 billion dollars from public education in their first budget,” Baldauff said. “Our public schools are producing the workforce of the future, and we have to have our children ready to compete in a global economy.”
