Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is down for the third month in a row. State Labor Secretary Roberta Gassman says compared to the national level and similar states, the news is encouraging, “We are doing consistently better than Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, the other big manufacturing states of the Midwest.”
Wisconsin’s seasonally-adjusted jobless rate in June was 7.9 percent, down from 8.2 percent in May.
Some economists say the seemingly positive numbers are the result of thousands of Wisconsinites who’ve simply stopped looking for work, meaning they vanish from unemployment statistics.
The state is continuing to move in the right direction, according to Gassman, but still faces challenges from the national economy.
Republicans say voters have to look at the big picture. State GOP Chairman Reince Priebus says Wisconsin has lost nearly 100,000 jobs since Democrats took over in Madison.
John Colbert-WIBA