First, we have the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) telling us that there's gonna be a whole helluva lot of hiring going on in 2012. Of course, they said the same thing over and over in 2011, and the state lost 45,000 jobs last year. In fact, thanks directly to Walker, Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in the nation last year.
The recent release of the March jobs numbers show that WMC's and Walker's claims are of the same sort of hogwash. After two months of woeful gain in jobs, which still left the state in more jobs lost than gained, Walker reached pre-recall stride by chasing out another 4,500 jobs.
And if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the actual press release announcing the jobs numbers, which is where Walker tried to bury that bad news, you'll find that the reported jobs gained in January was inflated by 7,300. Instead of gaining more than 12,000 jobs as Walker claimed, the state gained only 5,200 jobs, just over the amount of jobs he chased off in March.
Team Walker tried to bury that bid of news by boasting about how the unemployment rate dropped by a whole whopping one tenth of one percentage point, but we already knows what that means...it means that more people have given up on trying to find work in Fitzwalkerstan.
Ironically, Walker was just in Illinois, telling anyone who would listen that Illinois is doing everything wrong:
Walker spoke to Illinois business groups on Tuesday to defend his record. He said that unlike Illinois leaders, he has put Wisconsin on sound financial footing without raising taxes or worsening unemployment.
Walker told reporters the event was a campaign stop meant to show voters that his ouster could mean Illinois-style problems will hit Wisconsin.But like everything else Walker says, this blew up in his face. Illinois gained 9,100 jobs in March. On top of that, even with their tax hike, they still have the fifth lowest effective tax rate in the nation. Plus, their workers earn an average of 12% more than Wisconsin workers.
Yeah, we should have those problems. More jobs which pay better and a lower tax rate - Oh, the humanity!!
On top of the whole jobs thing, Walker will also have to spend the next six weeks in trying to explain the fact that more than two thousand of the jobs lost are teachers pushed out the door in the past year, as a direct result of his slashing the budget for educating our children.
All of this makes me wonder which one Walker's starting to fear the most - answering to John Doe or answering to the voters.
He doesn't spend enough time in Wisconsin to answer to the voters!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the analysis. Too bad what most people "know" is what Walker's ads portray. Unfortunate for us if the outcome of the recall election is based on advertising.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we need all boots on the ground. The one thing more powerful than a TV ad is word of mouth.
DeleteHopfully most of the teachers will be able to find jobs in Illinois, Michigan or Minnesota where wages are better anyway. As a bonus they won't have to accept being the official objects of hatred as a condition of employment.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was ironic that Arne Duncan came to Wisconsin to talk about teachers being the most respected profession and he was talking about his RESPECT program. Maybe before Nov. 2010, there was no program needed and now it is too late for Wisconsin. Wisconsin is not a very good state to be a teacher in, I would say.
ReplyDeleteWriting from eastern Iowa here: we've had a LOT of WI teachers applying at various local school districts. Jobs situation is pretty good here, despite repeated attempts by Repub Gov. Bransted (aka Braindead) to turn us into another WI.
ReplyDeleteIf I lived close enough to a state border, I might be doing that as well.
DeleteIn addition to pushing 2000 teachers out of employment he has now secretly had his two appointed members of WERC change the rules for determining teacher's base wage for their CPI increase under ACT 10 so that it reduces the money available for salary increase under the CPI to BELOW THE ACTUAL COST OF LIVING! He had a bad teacher somewhere or perhaps a good one who wouldn't let him lie, cheat and steal. What an EAGLE SCOUT!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for the guy somewhat. I mean, everybody loves him since he's been speaking from the pulpit his whole life with a whole lot of "atta boy" coming from the crowd.
DeleteThe fairly well-to-do all like the P.K.
A few points:
ReplyDelete1. You need to look at Illinois' proportional job gains. They have over twice as many people. Yes, the Wisconsin job numbers still look bad by that measure, but using a pure tally isn't really fair.
2. The financial situation in Illinois is untenable in the long term. Everybody knows that, even the teachers. Also, while they make more, their cost of living is significantly higher. You can't discount that. At some point, they will need to make structural reforms. That will be unavoidable. That's not a defense of Walker's reforms. I'm not saying that Illinois should follow Wisconsin's example. I AM saying that the long-term projections for Illinois are absolutely terrible.
3. If teaching in Wisconsin was so terrible, you'd see a lot more teachers leaving voluntarily. They are employees, not slaves. And 2,000 teachers were not "pushed out" because of Act 10. That simply isn't a factual claim.
Walker went too far. That is indisputable. However, you need to make more well-reasoned arguments against him. This kind of hyperbole doesn't add anything useful to the conversation. The only people who will listen to this are the people who already agree with us. What we need to do is appeal to the small number of independents out there, and I think they are quite tired of these types of arguments.
The situation in Wisconsin is the one which is untenable. The 2,000 teachers which left is just the beginning. The 2011-12 to 21012-13 loss is already shaping up to be much, much worse as Act 10's falseness is exposed.
DeleteAnd you might not have noticed the previous comment, but the teachers that can go elsewhere are already looking to do so.
The argument that they can just leave is also fallacious. Remember, Walker has been driving jobs out of Wisconsin, leaving fewer jobs for people to try to get.
BTW, even a small gain, if one accepts your first point, is better than a loss of any size.
Is WMC essentially a front group for John Menard and Friends?
ReplyDelete