Reading beyond the headlines of this DayWatch blurb that focuses too much on Milwaukee County’s piss-poor job-creation performance yields a very dark and bleak picture. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked job growth in the 326 largest counties in the country, including the 6 largest counties in Wisconsin (in alphabetical, Brown, Dane, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Racine, Waukesha and Winnebago), between the third quarter of 2005 and the third quarter in 2006. The average job growth among employers subject to unemployment insurance laws was 1.5%. Waukesha County came in on top of the Wisconsin heap and slotted in at 213rd nationally with a 0.5% increase. Milwaukee County came in second with a 0.1% increase, “good” enough for 252nd nationally, Racine broke even statistically, and the other 4 all lost jobs.
I guess having a very hostile tax/legal/regulatory business climate does have consequences.
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Given the explosion of job-growth in restaurants, hotels, and Gummint (as recorded by the Labor Stats folks), it would seem that either:
1) Such jobs are not being created here, or
2) Even those creations cannot offset the dump in manufacturing and construction.
My bet: #2.
I’ll take #3 - all of the above (though Craps is trying to rectify the lack of gubmint growth at the state level).