There has not been a lot to be excited about in Wisconsin’s jobs data recently.
Job growth has been sluggish with private sector employment increasing less than 1% year-over-year for the last 19 months.
The unemployment rate remains low at 3.3%, but that’s an increase of 0.5 percentage points since May. The state hasn’t seen its unemployment rate increase that quickly since 2009.
Wisconsin’s workforce is also shrinking. The total number of people in the workforce has been down year-over-year every month for the last 18 months. The workforce participation rate is also declining down from its most recent peak of 68.5% in mid-2017 to 67.1% in October.
From its high point in August 2017, the Wisconsin workforce has dropped by 24,711. Only eight other states, including just one in the Midwest, have seen workforce declines over that period.
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