Wisconsin's Unemployment Rate Increased Slightly Last Month

Monday, October 24th, 2022 -- 12:00 PM

(By Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) Despite adding more than 14,000 jobs, Wisconsin's unemployment rate increased slightly last month.

According to Joe Schulz with Wisconsin Public Radio, the state Department of Workforce Development, or DWD, released September's preliminary employment data Thursday.

The data shows that Wisconsin continues to fare better than the United States as a whole in terms of unemployment and labor force participation. It also shows that Wisconsin has added jobs in eight of last nine months.

Industries that saw employment gains include leisure and hospitality, construction, and manufacturing, while state government jobs have decreased by about 700 this year. Wisconsin added 14,400 private sector jobs last month.

Still, the state's unemployment rate increased from 3.1 percent in August to 3.2 percent in September as summer hospitality jobs wound down. For comparison, the national unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in September. Despite the slight increase in September, Winters said unemployment remains near historic lows.

DWD data shows that this September’s rate was slightly lower than the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in 2019 of 3.3 percent. Winters said Wisconsin has recovered 99 percent of the jobs lost during the COVID-19 recession in 2020.

He said inflation hasn't impacted the state's employment picture, but it has affected workers' spending power. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate was 65.6 percent in September, down slightly from 65.9 percent in August. For comparison, the national rate in September was 62.3 percent.

Winters said the state’s biggest underlying workforce challenge remains demographics as the baby boomers age out of the labor force. The state’s estimates have the labor force growth flattening to near zero, and potentially shrinking, by 2035.

In total, the state added about 63,000 non-farm jobs over the past year, with leisure and hospitality, construction, and manufacturing seeing monthly and annual gains. In a statement, DWD Secretary-designee Amy Pechacek said Wisconsin set records with 133,600 construction jobs, while manufacturing saw "strong growth" with 473,400 jobs.

Meanwhile, the leisure and hospitality industry also made a "strong comeback" in 2022 as it picked up 18,300 jobs, she said.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.