Wisconsin Conservatives Great Plan for Wisconsin - Attack Public Employees and Economy will Grow

Plan is Not Working to Expectations

The coming battle in Wisconsin over the recall and replacement of Republican Gov. Scott Walker was initiated by Gov. Walker’s radical anti-public employee union program.  Soon after he was elected in 2010 the Governor forced through a program of benefit and salary cuts to public employees.  That was considered unwelcome but acceptable by the public employee unions who recognized the fiscal reality of the state in the wake of the recession.

But the Governor also said that in order to restore prosperity to the state he needed to effectively strip the public employee unions of their right to engage in collective bargaining.  And so he did, resulting in the backlash against him that will culminate in a recall election in June.  As for the state’s economy, it seems it is not doing all that great.

Metro Milwaukee accounted for most of the job losses in the state last month, according to estimatesreleased Wednesday by the state Department of Workforce Development.

The four-county metro area lost an estimated 4,400 nonfarm jobs in March from February, according to latest estimates. Metro Milwaukee encompasses Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties.

Of the state's 12 major metro areas, four registered job losses, with metro Milwaukee posting the deepest losses. The other three in negative territory for the month are Eau Claire (-800), Green Bay (-1,500) and Oshkosh-Neenah (-500).

The unemployment rate in various locales did fall, but that can only mean that former members of the labor force became current members of the non-labor force.

Metro Milwaukee's unemployment rate, which is not seasonally adjusted and is subject to erratic swings, improved to 7.7% from 8.0% in February. The unemployment rate declined in all 12 metro areas in the month. Statewide, the unemployment rate fell on both a seasonally adjusted basis as well as in non-adjusted terms.

It has been common throughout the on-again, off-again recovery for the two main jobs indicators - private-sector employment and the unemployment rate - to move in opposite directions. As long as the two indicators diverge, economists say the state economy likely is drifting without clear direction.

and in that case a drop in unemployment rates is a bad thing, not a good thing.

But don’t expect Gov. Walker or his party to acknowledge that there policy is not working.  After all, some time between now and say 2019 jobs will increase in the state and at that time they can all say they were right.  In the meantime those without jobs and those who have given up looking for work will just have to revel in the fact that at least Wisconsin does not have those troublesome public employee unions.