Cumulative growth in Wisconsin since 2017M01 lags Illinois, according to estimates released today. And the 2018M09 Wisconsin index is below peak (nobody else in the region is).
Category Archives: Wisconsin
Thankfully, “New Nafta” Has Saved Wisconsin Dairy!
Ooops. Jumped the gun. Actually Nafta 0.8 will only yield minor benefit to American dairy farmers. In the meanwhile, prices are plummeting…
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Wisconsin and Her Neighbors
Bruce Hall takes issue with my post on Wisconsin’s employment growth, and writes (sarcastically):
Looks as if every state in the midwest is doing fine except Wisconsin.
Mebbe the unsarcastic interpretation is more correct. I let readers assess, based on these graphs.
Wisconsin Labor Force, Civilian, Total and Private Nonfarm Payroll Employment All Decline
August total NFP and private NFP also revised downward.
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Minnesota Powers Ahead, Wisconsin Flatlines
According to the Philly Fed coincident indices.
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Using Gov. Walker’s Gold Standard QCEW, Has 250K Jobs Been Added?
Maybe. But not as of 2018M01.
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Huzzah! Three and a Half Years Late, Walker Hits His +250K Jobs Promise
As Wisconsinites will recall, as late as August 2013, Governor Walker was reiterating his promise to create 250,000 new private sector jobs by the end of his first term (January 2015). As of July 2018, Wisconsin’s private sector net job creation surpassed Walker’s promised target — a full 3.5 years late.
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Comparing MN and WI along Five Variables
In a recent paper, Ryan LeCloux and I use five macroeconomic measures to assess state economic performance (post). Here, I use updated data to evaluate Minnesota’s economic performance vis à vis Wisconsin: GDP, personal income, nonfarm payroll employment, civilian employment, and coincident indices and “adjusted” coincident indices.
The Wisconsin Macro Outlook
The June coincident index flattens out; the leading index, released today, predicts a 1.1% growth over the next six months. Minnesota’s forecasted growth is over twice that rate.
A Short History of Turning Points in Wisconsin
Ever since the Walker Administration ended the issuance of the Wisconsin Economic Outlook (last issue May 2015), those of us outside of the government have been a little in the dark when trying to assess state level economic conditions in a systematic manner. In a recent paper (updated version 8/1), Ryan LeCloux and I assess how various macroeconomic aggregates track the Wisconsin economy at higher-than-annual frequency. Investigating the behavior of these series yields the following graph.