As Scott Walker returns from yet another taxpayer-funded presidential campaign trip out of the country, federal jobs numbers are confirming that Wisconsin ranked dead last in the Midwest in private sector job growth in Scott Walker’s first term in office.
In keeping with his pattern, Scott Walker last month released the state’s quarterly jobs numbers early to avoid comparison with other states. Those numbers showed that Walker created just 129,131 new jobs in his first term, or 51.7 percent of his 250,000 jobs promise. But federal data released today shows an even bleaker picture, as Wisconsin’s job growth in Walker’s first full term is dead last in the Midwest and just 35th in the nation, down from 11th in the nation on the day that Walker took office. The data also shows Wisconsin ranked 38th in the nation in private sector job growth over the most recent one year period for which data is available.
That’s based on the latest and most accurate quarterly federal jobs numbers, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (“QCEW”), which Scott Walker has referred to as the “gold standard” when it comes to tallying job creation.
Today’s job numbers are another source of bad news for Walker — who is largely ignoring a budget crisis of his own creation in Wisconsin and has been confronted with scandal and incompetence at his flagship jobs agency — as he campaigns for president on a message of fiscal responsibility and economic growth.
“Scott Walker refuses to take accountability for the job failures on his watch. He’s blamed the weather, he’s blamed the Greek debt crisis, ObamaCare, conflict in Syria, and the unemployed – I can only assume he’s going to blame Canada next,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Melissa Baldauff said Wednesday.
