Walker Job Claim Questioned

UWM Poli Sci grad student and statistical whiz John Kovari sends along this bit of fact-checking:

Walker’s Inaccuracy on Jobs

According to a tweet by Governor Walker, “Last year, more govnt (sic) jobs than manufacturing jobs in WI. Now, more manufacturing jobs than govnt (sic) jobs.”

GovWalker Governor Walker

Last year, more govnt jobs than manufacturing jobs in WI. Now, more manufacturing jobs than govnt jobs.

27 Apr Favorite Retweet Reply

But when we look at raw data a different story emerges.

Never in Wisconsin’s history were there more government jobs than manufacturing ones.

Here’s the data since 2001, using CES data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Government and Manufacturing Employment 2001-2011 (in thousands)

As a graph shows, manufacturing employment took a hit since late 2008, during the “Great Recession.”

The lines almost look like they converged, but they never actually did.

The closest they came was in January of 2010, when there were 2,900 more manufacturing jobs than government jobs.  Even when several thousand census workers were hired in May 2010, there were still more manufacturing jobs than government jobs.

Luckily, manufacturing jobs have been rebounding since 2010, but it’s important to note that the recovery began months before Walker took office.

Governor Walker’s tweet is found to be inaccurate and misleading after analyzing actual CES employment data.  Regardless, I hope the manufacturing recovery continues.