More than a week after Scott Walker’s campaign re-election announcement, which completely ignored his central 2010 campaign promise to create 250,000 new jobs, Politifact Wisconsin is examining the latest developments in Walker’s jobs failure that has Wisconsin ranked 9th out of 10 Midwestern states on job growth.
Politifact’s analysis points at what we’ve known for quite some time — Wisconsin is lagging behind the rest of the nation in job creation thanks to Walker’s abysmal economic policy.
Walker’s administration is not growing jobs at a pace to keep up with our neighbors in the Midwest or even Walker’s own benchmark goal of 250,000 new jobs; a goal, noted recently by a Wisconsin economist, that simply relied on Wisconsin experiencing a normal economic recovery.[1], [2]
Politifact examines Walker’s progress, noting, “With nine months to go, the state would have to create about 16,000 jobs a month for each of the nine remaining months of the year, for Walker to meet his promise. There hasn’t been a single month since Walker took office where the state has created that many jobs. And nine consecutive months of added jobs would be pretty unusual as well. In recent months, the reports show that private sector job creation has not accelerated. In the first three months of this year, the state added an estimated 2,700 jobs. That compares with an increase of 10,700 in the first three months of last year.”
The Politifact analysis follows more bad news for Wisconsin’s economy, as a recent report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation shows Wisconsin continues to rank among the worst-performing states for entrepreneurship. [3] Given that new business starts account for the majority of new jobs created, Wisconsin’s prospects under Scott Walker don’t appear any brighter.
So the reason Scott Walker ignored his jobs promise during his re-election announcement is clear — reports show that private sector job creation has not accelerated in recent months, and, unfortunately, for Wisconsin workers and families, Walker has no credible plan to get our economy back on track, leaving his 250,000 jobs promise far out of reach.
[1] “Wisconsin 9th among 10 Midwestern states in job growth under Walker”
[2] “Walker’s job creation record a total and utter failure”
[3] “Wisconsin among worst-performing states for entrepreneurship, report finds”
