The head of the state Democratic Party is taking issue with claims that Wisconsin has added 86,000 jobs under Governor Walker.
Governor Walker re-stated his campaign goal this week of helping Wisconsin create 250,000 jobs during his first term in office, and pointed to federal figures he claims show the state is moving towards reaching that goal. However, state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate says those numbers are based on “fuzzy math” and ignore monthly census numbers which show the state has only added 25,411 jobs since Walker took office in 2011.
AUDIO: Gov. Scott Walker (:14)
Walker’s job numbers are based on quarterly data that’s reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while Democrats continue to point to much lower monthly census figures that had Wisconsin leading the nation in lost jobs for much of the last two years. Tate says those monthly numbers are the ones that have always been used to measure job growth. He says Walker is choosing to ignore them simply because he doesn’t like what they say.
Tate also points to a recent Forbes article that gave Wisconsin a dismal ranking for job creation prospects. The magazine projected the Badger State would have the second worst rate of job creation in the US through 2016.
AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:15)
