Ever since declaring Wisconsin "Open for Business," Governor Scott Walker has repeatedly bragged about the effects his "jobs initiatives" were having on job creation in Wisconsin. Take, for example, a press release in April trumpeting "24,900 Jobs Created Since January, Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.3%".
“Nearly 25,000 Wisconsinites are back to work since we declared Wisconsin open for business in January with 11,500 of those jobs in manufacturing,” Governor Walker said. “Because of the hard work done so far to improve Wisconsin’s business climate, employers are willing to grow and invest in Wisconsin. That is good for middle class working families and it is good for Wisconsin. We are on our way to 250,000 jobs by 2015, but there is more work to be done in order to meet and surpass that goal.”(Let's forget right now that the middle class really needs quality teachers in well-funded public schools, affordable health care, social services, a safety network for the disadvantaged, clean drinking water, and the ability to vote without restrictions).
Yet Walker has been oddly silent about the most recent jobs report. The state by state report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of jobs in Wisconsin went from 2,763,400 in April 2011 to 2,764,300 in May 2011 (seasonally adjusted). For those of you without calculators or sharp minds handy, that's a difference of 900. That's 900 whole jobs created in May thanks to Scott Walker's initiatives!
As far as unemployment in Wisconsin, that actually hasn't changed at all since January 2011. It remains firmly at 7.4%. In fact, the number of initial claimants for unemployment (people filing for the first time) went up dramatically over the past month in Wisconsin, from 2,559 in April 2011 to 7,956 in May 2011.
While touting his "jobs creation initiatives" over the past few months, Walker has also repeatedly blasted Illinois for what he sees as "business-unfriendly" taxes and legislation. He even went so far as to directly encourage Illinois businesses to flee that state for Wisconsin. From an interview with MyFox-Chicago in January of this year:
"Years ago Wisconsin had a tourism advertising campaign targeted to Illinois with the motto, 'Escape to Wisconsin,"' Walker said in a statement. "Today we renew that call to Illinois businesses, 'Escape to Wisconsin.' You are welcome here."Do you know who did have significant job creation in the past month, unlike Wisconsin? Illinois. They added 8,200 jobs in May 2011. To put that into perspective, even though Illinois has roughly two times the population as Wisconsin, they added nine times as many jobs. Overall, Illinois's unemployment rate has fallen more than Wisconsin's unemployment rate over the past 12 months - a drop of 1.6% over the past year for Illinois compared to a drop of 1.1% for Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's job creation numbers in May do parallel those of the country as a whole. Only 54,000 jobs were created in the nation last month. However, for a Governor who insists that his union-busting and public school-gutting initiatives, combined with tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens and corporations will bring jobs to the state, it is not good news. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel pointed out in an article yesterday, this doesn't look great for Walker.
Just last month, Walker issued a smug press release bragging that some of the nation's wealthiest CEOs had moved Wisconsin up 17 spots in their rankings of the states most friendly to business. The primary criteria that determined "business friendliness" were of course low corporate taxation and limited regulations, both of which Walker and the Republican legislature have been working overtime to offer. However, no matter how highly the nation's CEOs seem to think of Wisconsin, it obviously isn't getting any of them to create jobs here.
Although I wish all Wisconsinites would be able to find gainful employment, this might be the issue that finally convinces some diehard Walker supporters that his agenda is not good for Wisconsin in any way, shape or form.
