Over Half of Wisconsin Counties Had Fewer Jobs Last Year Than Before the Pandemic

Tuesday, September 17th, 2024 -- 12:01 PM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) Despite Wisconsin’s strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, over half the state’s counties had fewer jobs last year than in 2019.

According to Joe Schulz with Wisconsin Public Radio, some sectors, like manufacturing, also lost jobs over the same period. That’s according to a Wisconsin Policy Forum report released Friday, which analyzed newly-released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to examine changes in jobs by county and industry from 2019 to 2023.

While Wisconsin set a new record-high for total jobs last year and the unemployment rate remained near record lows, 42 of the state’s 72 counties averaged fewer jobs in 2023 than they did in 2019, the report said.

One bright spot is that wages, on average, outpaced inflation between 2019 and 2023, the report said. Average wages per employee rose by 21.1 percent in Wisconsin, while inflation was 19.2 percent during that period.

The counties that added jobs at the fastest rates between 2019 and 2023 were Lafayette, Calumet, Kenosha, Pepin and Chippewa counties, according to the report. Dane and Kenosha counties, meanwhile, added the most total jobs during that period at 8,819 and 5,698, respectively.

The five counties that lost jobs at the fastest rate from 2019 to 2023 were Jackson, Trempealeau, Crawford, Lincoln and Florence, the report said. But Milwaukee County lost the most total jobs in that period at 19,140, followed by Brown and Wood counties, both losing more than 2,000 jobs.

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