High Five, Governor Scott Walker: Wisconsin Lost The Most Jobs Last Year

A big pat on the back goes out to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin –¬†his state it posted the most job losses in a year, more losses than any other state in all of America. He happens to be facing a recall in Wisconsin in June, so many of his constituents might take that job-loss into account when casting ballots.

The Christian Science Monitor cites stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which say that the cheese state lost 23,900 jobs between March 2011 and March 2012. It’s not even that it was a close race among the other states, either –¬†no other state lost more than 3,500 jobs.

Most of the job losses in Wisconsin were in the public sector, at 17,800. But it also lost the most private-sector jobs at 6,100 than any other state. Only two other states, Mississippi and Rhode Island, reported any private-sector job losses at all.

This might come as a shock, as Walker has been campaigning with a message that jobs are up in Wisconsin, after job gains were up in January and February with 17,000 new jobs. A loss of 4,300 in March brought that positive number down again, however.

“We understand, it’s not the government that creates jobs; it’s the people who create jobs. The best thing we can do is get government out of the way,” Walker told the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Springfield last week.

Walker’s camp says this all means that the gains early in this year will keep going for the rest of the year, adding that unemployment rates are lower in Wisconsin except in three counties. They say job growth in the early part of the year is because of Walker’s agenda to cut public-sector union benefits and bargaining power.

While jobs are not solely the responsibility of the governor by any means,. Walker originally campaigned on adding 250,000 private-sector jobs to the state in his first term. As the Christian Science Monitor points out, only 5,900 jobs have been added since he took office.

His Democratic opponents see the job loss as job loss and place blame squarely on Walker.

“Every report card that comes in for Gov. Walker shows he’s failing Wisconsin,” candidate Kathleen Falk, a former Dane County executive, said in a statement released Tuesday.

A May 8 Democratic primary will decide whether Falk, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett or four others will compete against Walker in the June 5 recall election.

Editor’s Note: If there was a way for me to strike through the words in the headline and totally rewrite them, I would. Since I can’t, I’ve started with trying to strike through the parts of this post that I now realize are wrong.

It was wrong of me to take any personal bias I have against Walker and let that bleed into any part of this post, or in the larger sense, to let any personal bias I have whatsoever make its way into any post I ever write.

I value our readers, and I let you down by not simply presenting the facts of job loss and having you make your own judgment on those facts. I don’t take your criticisms lightly, and in fact, have the utmost respect for your opinions.

It was never my intent to alienate, offend or even one of you, much less the numbers it seems I have angered. I don’t take this lightly, and will aim to make it up to you and regain your trust in future posts.

I let you all down and myself as well, and so I hope you all will accept my sincere apology and continue to be Consumerist readers. Please feel free to email me directly and I’ll do my best to further apologize.

Mary Beth

Wisconsin posts biggest US job loss, as Gov. Scott Walker fights for his job [Christian Science Monitor]

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