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Wisconsin Continues to Outperform the Nation When it Comes to Unemployment and Workforce Participation

Sunday, August 18th, 2024 -- 11:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin businesses are relatively pessimistic about the economy as they combat high interest rates and inflation.

But, according to Joe Schulz with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the state continues to outperform the nation when it comes to unemployment and workforce participation.

The state Department of Workforce Development on Thursday announced that employment hit a new record high for the third month in a row with 3,049,700 total people employed in July.

However, state data shows private sector jobs decreased by 8,500 over the month, but were still up 17,900 over the year. At the same time, Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate was unchanged from June at 65.5 percent, and its unemployment rate remained low at 3 percent, better than the national rate of 4.3 percent in July.

That’s despite recent survey data suggesting Wisconsin employers were slowing down hiring. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business lobbyist, released the results of a survey of 182 companies last week.

The survey showed 39 percent of employers planned to hire more workers this year, a 21 point drop from 18 months ago when 60 percent planned to increase hiring.

Forty-four percent of businesses surveyed said they’ve either scaled-back or delayed expansions or capital expenditures due to high interest rates, and 35 percent of companies said inflation was their top challenge.

The Federal Reserve has increased interest rates in 2022 and 2023 to cool inflation, with rates hitting a two-decade high. Federal data released this week showed the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the rate of inflation, fell below 3 percent in July for the first time since 2021.

But Steven Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the Fed increased interest rates to slow the economy and bring inflation down and it looks like it’s working.

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