The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released unemployment estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday morning, showing state unemployment had dropped to 6.1 percent, the lowest it has been since November 2008.
The adjusted rate of 6.1 percent is 0.8 percent lower than January 2013, when unemployment was estimated at 6.9 percent. The state also added 106,100 private sector jobs from December 2010 to December 2013, the reports said.
“The January 2014 unemployment rate and adjusted estimates for 2013 are in closer alignment with actual job counts, showing Wisconsin has added tens of thousands of private sector jobs since 2011,” DWD Secretary Reggie Newson said in a statement. “The investments we are making to develop the workforce and grow the state’s economy are creating opportunities and moving our state in the right direction.”
Construction, professional and business services and natural resources and mining were among the top three private sector industries to see the most growth over the past year.
Despite the gains, Marquette University professor Abdur Chowdhury told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Gov. Scott Walker has achieved less than half his goal of creating 250,000 jobs.
“To meet Walker’s 250,000 pledge, the state would have to create in one year 38,000 more jobs than during the previous three years combined,” Chowdbury said in the article. “By another measure, it would have to add 12,000 jobs each month of 2014.”
[Photo by Flickr user Bytemarks]
