Wisconsin’s Continued Job Losses

Seems like a great time to punish Wisconsin’s business.

Wisconsin employers cut 133,800 jobs in the last 12 months, the biggest one-year setback ever and, in percentage terms, the deepest dip in more than 50 years.

Preliminary payroll data released Thursday from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development show the state with fewer jobs last month than it had in May 1999.

Year-to-year job losses were widespread, touching every major private-sector industry except educational and health services.

Manufacturers led all industries, with a cut of 61,500 jobs, or 12.4%, since May 2008.

“One disturbing trend,” Russ Kashian, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, said of the manufacturing decline. Since a May peak in 1998, factory jobs have dropped by 159,900, or 27%.

Kashian also noted that the public sector had a net gain of jobs in the last year, although government furloughs will result in less disposable income for those workers.

The state report Thursday also included estimates from household surveys, raising the state’s unemployment rate to 8.7% from 4.2% in May 2008, before adjusting for seasonal fluctuations. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate remained below the U.S. rate of 9.1%, unadjusted.

The adjusted rate for Wisconsin rose to 8.9% in May from 8.6% in April. The U.S. seasonally adjusted rate was 9.4% in May.