The bad news is that one thing is losing jobs:
Wisconsin unexpectedly lost private-sector jobs in December for the sixth consecutive month, the same months in which the nation added private-sector jobs.Two hundred state jobs also went poof in December - a personal Christmas present from Walker, no doubt.
Given robust hiring last month at the national level, as reported separately two weeks ago, "I did not expect a sixth month of decline in Wisconsin," said John Heywood, a labor economist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
According to data released Thursday by the state Department of Workforce Development, the state lost an estimated 3,900 jobs in the private sector in December from November. In the same month, the United States gained an estimated 212,000 jobs, outstripping expectations of most economists and raising hopes that employers are gaining confidence at the national level.
The Walker administration tried to ignore the actual numbers and tout that the unemployment percentage dropped from 7.3 to 7.1, but even that is nothing to brag about. It just means that people gave up trying to find work in Fitzwalkerstan:
Economists caution that the apparent improvement in the jobless rate was at least partly attributable to more than 1,000 Wisconsinites who stopped looking for work in December. That removes them from the government's official tally of the unemployed and automatically leads to a lower rate even without new jobs. In the course of the recovery, the unemployment rate has dipped repeatedly because so-called discouraged workers have given up looking for work.I've been pointing out for a long, long time that these continuous months of job losses are due to Walker's budget and the way he took money away from the working men and women of the state and gave it to his wealthy corporate sponsors. I have repeatedly pointed out that when people have less money to spend, they cut back on the luxuries and the niceties, such as going out to eat, going to the movies, having spa days, or even just buying things that aren't essential.
"The unemployment rate is not a clear-cut indicator because it can improve for good reasons and it can improve for bad reasons, and so far it looks like it has been improving for bad reasons," said Brian Jacobsen, a Menomonee Falls-based economist at Wells Fargo Bank.
Sure enough, the report from the Business Journal proves me correct (as usual):
The biggest job losses were in the service sector, where Wisconsin lost 6,900 jobs between November and December, and had 2,200 fewer people working compared with December 2010. Manufacturing continued to post gains with a count of 443,200 jobs, 3,300 jobs higher than November and 9,300 more than in the same month of 2010. Construction gained jobs between the months, but had 3,800 fewer jobs in December than in the same month of 2010.And as James Rosenberg points out, the jobs that were added in Wisconsin came in the first six months of Walker's regime, when Doyle's budget was still in place. Once the effect of of Walker's redistribution of money - taking from the working class and giving it to the wealthy - took effect in midyear, it's been all downhill.
Walker shouldn't be taking credit for Doyle's work and he sure as heck shouldn't be surprised that there was a million people who were willing to brave the Wisconsin winter to sign his recall petition.
It's becoming more obvious that not only did he needlessly overreach and most egregiously attacked the good people of the state, he did so very incompetently. We need to oust him sooner than later, if anyone of us is to have a job left.
When I heard a person on the radio reporting the loss in restaurant/hospitality jobs, he said it was puzzling and that he did not know why those job losses should have been so high. And I thought, "I know." You cannot take $400, $500, $600, $700 a month from the incomes of hundreds of thousands of public employees and not expect to see an effect on local economies. Certain segments of the population have most definitely stopped going out to restaurants or taking weekend trips around the state. I am dumbfounded that other segments of the population continue to crow about the public employees losing part of their income. What do those people think the public sector did with the money they have lost? Stuff it in a mattress? Bury it in the backyard in a coffee can? Put it in a box on the top shelf of their closets? Of COURSE it is going to have an effect on businesses and jobs.
ReplyDeleteIn a recession, the only business that can keep steady jobs is the government. Take money out of that and you've slit your own throat, so to speak. Walker has hurt himself by doing this. My real fear is that as other states are gaining jobs making a vibrant economy, the new jobs will go there. Since we were left behind at the beginning of the, all be it slow, recovery, we will not be able to catch up. Walker has done permanent and long term damage to the state.
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