Walker Opposes Raising the Minimum Wage
In a year-end interview on national television Scott Walker was asked if he supports raising the minimum wage. He answered a definitive No! He responded saying that the nation should instead follow his Wisconsin footsteps in job creation. What alternate universe does the Governor live in?
Quarterly data rank Wisconsin 37th in private-sector job growth
By John Schmid and Kevin Crowe of the Journal Sentinel 12/18/13
The nation’s most recent employment report, which examines job creation in all 50 states, raises a familiar question with renewed urgency: Why is Wisconsin a chronic laggard?
According to Wednesday’s report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wisconsin gained 23,963 private-sector jobs in the 12 months from June 2012 through June 2013, a 1.0% increase that ranks the state 37th among the 50 states in the pace of job creation during that period.
The state’s ranking slid from a revised rank of 32nd three months earlier, which covered the 12 months through March 2012.
Wisconsin continued to trail the national rate of job creation, as it has since July 2011. The United States created private-sector jobs at a rate of 1.9% in the latest 12-month period, nearly double Wisconsin’s 1.0% rate, the data show.
“It’s like déjà vu all over again,” said Dale Knapp, director of research at the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a nonpartisan pubic policy group in Madison.
While management of the economy and job creation are politically charged issues in Wisconsin, not least ahead of next year’s governor’s race, Knapp and others were quick to point out that Wisconsin’s subpar performance is hardly a new phenomenon.
“These are persistent patterns we’ve seen over a long period of time,” said Charles Franklin, a social scientist and data specialist at Marquette University.
Since the turn of the century, Wisconsin appears to have a natural “speed limit” in its private-sector job