Business Certainty in Wisconsin? A Tale of Two Numbers.

It’s not getting near enough attention, for whatever reason (conservative media?), but maybe we should open the discussion up sometime. Ya think?

The Political Environment pointed out the recent story from John Nichols:

Cap Times: In recent months, Wisconsin’s unemployment has ticked up to 7.6 percent. It’s up three-tenths of a percent since April.

But Nichols story is an isolated incident. Like only a few other articles buried in the business section and never referred to again, it’s only dumb luck that I ran across the following examples. On June 17th, I wrote and posted this:

The unemployment rate went up from 7.3 to 7.4 percent. If we were to use the same spin applied to Obama’s uptick from 9.0 to 9.1 percent unemployment, then Walker’s “Open for Business” plan is a failure. As Walker’s corporate friendly plan kicks in, jobs creation is hitting the just now hitting the skids:

The state added 3,000 jobs in April, including 2,800 manufacturing job, but lost 1,700 construction jobs. The May figures showed a net gain of 1,600 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin but those gains were offset by a loss of 1,300 jobs in the professional and business services area and 900 job losses in the financial sector.

I wrote this June 23th:

While Gov. Scott Walker was given a pat on the back by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for a “successful state strategy for job creation and economic growth,” reality was hitting many Wisconsinites directly in the pocketbooks.

Business Week: “Unemployment rates increased in most Wisconsin cities in May. Unemployment increased in 25 cities with a population of 25,000 people or more. Racine had the highest at 13.4 percent. The city of Wausau’s seasonally unadjusted jobless rate rose from 10 percent in April to 10.7 percent last month.  

While conservative leaning Politifact concentrates on Scott Walker’s promise to create 250,000 jobs, we’re intentionally sidetracked from the job losses many predicted would result from the administration’s policies.

One Wisconsin Now highlighted this harsh realtiy:

Wisconsin Senate Republican are expected today to cut $56 million yearly from benefits for newly-unemployed Wisconsin workers just as figures show Wisconsin’s unemployment rate under Gov. Scott Walker has jumped higher than most states in the past two months.