Wisconsin has been lagging behind the rest of the nation when it comes to job creation for 26 consecutive months – the entirety of Scott Walker’s term in office – according to a new study from Jack Norman at the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future.
Federal jobs data shows that Wisconsin has been adding jobs at only about half the rate of the national average. The under-performance means Wisconsin is adding roughly 25,000 fewer jobs per year than if the state was growing at the national average.
The analysis comes just days after the latest jobs numbers showed that Wisconsin lost 24,100 jobs in April — the largest loss in the Midwest last month and Wisconsin’s largest single-month loss since the height of the national recession in 2009.
Reached for comment on the April jobs numbers, the Walker administration blamed cold and rainy weather for the losses.
Norman cites several of Walker’s “anti-growth” policies for the losses, including cuts to take-home pay for public employees, rejection of federal funds for Medicaid expansion, and historic cuts to education.
“It’s not a coincidence that Wisconsin’s jobs slump coincides with Walker’s term in office, because so many of the policies he’s enacted are anti-growth,” Norman writes. “Austerity economic policies help explain Wisconsin’s poor jobs performance. Bad weather does not.”
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