Wisconsin and Minnesota released March employment figures today. Here, without comment (as none are needed) are year-on-year growth rates relative to the US average for Minnesota (blue) and Wisconsin (red).
Figure 1: 12 month log-differences of nonfarm payroll employment for Minnesota (blue) and Wisconsin (red), relative to US. Green shading denotes sample not updated to reflect QCEW-related benchmarking. Source: WI DWD, MN DEED, BLS, and author’s calculations.
Today, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released establishment data benchmarked to data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages through September of 2016. Briefly, Wisconsin employment continues to lag the Nation, and its neighbor Minnesota.
Civilian employment and nonfarm payroll employment both decline.
That’s what Governor Walker said today about Wisconsin’s economy, quoting from a 1980’s song. This was apparently spurred by DWD’s release “Wisconsin Employment Reaches All-Time High in November”. This statement is true, when referring to the relatively imprecisely measured household survey figures [1]. It is not true when referring the (more precisely measured) establishment series.
Quarterly state GDP figures for the second quarter were released yesterday. Estimated Wisconsin GDP is flat relative to 2015Q4; 2016Q1 GDP was revised down by 1.7%.
At least Kansas makes Wisconsin look good.
In case you were wondering, Minnesota continues to outpace Wisconsin.
Minnesota, US series continue to rise.
Wisconsin DWD release here.
Here’s private nonfarm payroll employment relative to 2011M01.
Figure 1: Log private nonfarm payroll employment for US (black) and WI (red), seasonally adjusted, both normalized to 2011M01=0. Source: BLS, DWD, and author’s calculations.
The Kauffman Foundation has just released its report on startup activity. Wisconsin comes in last place in startup density.