Saturday, January 31, 2009

West Bend Hit By Recession

Tough times. 

At 7.9 percent, West Bend’s unemployment rate is currently the sixth-highest in the state, according to new data released Thursday by the Department of Workforce Development.

   Unemployment in the city rose 0.9 points rise from 7 percent in November. West Bend’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in December 2007.

   The city has seen a slew of large-scale layoffs since late November, including cuts at manufacturers Regal Ware Inc. and Gehl Co., and two rounds of significant layoffs at screen printer Serigraph Inc.

   Beloit (11.4 percent), Racine (10.8 percent), Janesville (9 percent), Green Bay (8.3 percent) and Milwaukee (7.9 percent) are the only communities with higher unemployment rates among the 30 included in the report.

Washington County, however, recorded a jobless rate of 5.3 percent, to rank 58th among the state’s 72 counties.

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0934 hrs
Economy + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. “Washington County, however, recorded a jobless rate of 5.3 percent, to rank 58th among the state’s 72 counties. “

    Is this the percentage of people laid off from employers or is it people unemployed in Washington County? The reason asked is that many people in Washington County work in other counties and it seems that Washington County doesn’t have many employers.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 31, 2009 at 1140 hrs


  2. “Jobless rate” usually denotes the number of people unemployed.

    Posted by Owen on January 31, 2009 at 1144 hrs


  3. Perfect timing for a school referendum. rolleyes

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 31, 2009 at 1638 hrs


  4. To the best of my recollection, the “jobless rate” is drawn from the number of people filing unemployment insurance claims in a given reporting period.  This leads to a little underreporting, because some unemployed folks who worked for noneligible employers may not bother filing at all.  But the number would be tracked by the county of residence of the filer, NOT by the county in which he or she last worked.  So that would cover people who live in Washington County but had held jobs elsewhere.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 31, 2009 at 1641 hrs


  5. Here’s something as “clear as mud”:

    http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/det/workforcetraining/lmi.htm

    The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program develops monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment, and unemployment rates for the State of Wisconsin, all counties, Workforce Development Areas, Small Labor Market Areas, Metropolitan Divisions, Combined Statistical Areas, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and cities with a population of at least 25,000 people.

    In Wisconsin, data are produced using models, which combine current and historical data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, the state Unemployment Insurance (UI) system, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, and the Decennial Census.

    Here’s a the press release and data for state, counties, cities, etc.:

    http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsreleases/2009/unemployment/1208_local_lmi.pdf

    I think West Bend population is 30,000+.  Notice that once a city reaches 25,000 it gets a figure of it’s own.  I would imagine that a 1000 layoffs in a city of 25,000 will have much more impact than 1000 layoffs in a city of 250,000. Looking at the article, it mentions that the layoffs happened in late November - will be interesting to see what happens next month - I predict it will “even” out & be about the same as the rest of the metro area.  I’m not sure how much hiring activity there would be in December, other than temporary seasonal jobs.  I have a relative who switched jobs several times in his career, and he said he never got any offers in the last month of a quarter.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 31, 2009 at 1748 hrs


  6. “Jobless rate” usually denotes the number of people unemployed.


    Is that 5% of Washington Counties population or, is it of Washington Counties total employment? What’s the total figure it’s derived from?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 01, 2009 at 0954 hrs


  7. It looks like from the release that the rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed by the total number of people in the labor force. 

    http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dwd/newsreleases/ui_local_default.pdf

    Posted by Owen on February 01, 2009 at 1010 hrs


  8. VOTE NO!!!  THIS IS AN INSULT TO ASK PEOPLE SCRAPING TO GET BY THE WAY IT IS FOR MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR THIS PROJECT…..I AM VOTING NO THIS TIME AND WHEN THIS ONE FAILS I WILL VOTE NO THE NEXT TIME THESE IDIOTS COME UP WITH ANOTHER INSULTING REFERENDUM….

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 07, 2009 at 1500 hrs


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