Wisconsin Unemployment Rate Falls To 17-Year Low Under Gov. Scott Walker

Republican Governor Scott Walker’s conservative leadership has Wisconsin winning and working with news that the state’s unemployment rate has dropped to a 17-year low. April job numbers showed Wisconsin’s unemployment rate continued its decline to 3.2%, its lowest point since February 2000, and lower than the national average by a full percentage point. This news comes shortly after Wisconsin became a top-ten state for business for the first time in its history. Governor Walker’s pro-jobs policies are getting results for the people of Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal reports:

“Wisconsin’s estimated unemployment rate last month dropped to a 17-year low of 3.2%, down from 3.4% in March and well below the peak of 9.2% late in 2009 in the worst days of the Great Recession.

Thursday’s report from state Department of Workforce Development, which is based on preliminary estimates and subject to revision, shows that Wisconsin’s labor market is approaching levels not seen since February 2000, shortly after the tech-giddy dot-com boom.

The state’s jobless rate has paralleled a consistent decline in the national unemployment rate, which fell to 4.4% in April, its lowest rate in 10 years and well below 10% at its peak late in 2009. The national rate last hit 4.4% in May 2007.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate consistently has trended below the national rate for more than 30 years.

According to the state report, Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 68.6% and continues to outpace the U.S. rate, which decreased to 62.9% in April.

That agency said the size of the state’s total labor force and overall employment in Wisconsin remained at an all-time high in April.

‘The bottom line is Wisconsin’s economy is growing and adding jobs, and our biggest challenge now is finding enough skilled talent to fill openings employers have available,’ Workforce Development Secretary Ray Allen said in a statement.”