Saturday, July 23, 2011

More Light Shed On Walker's Job Claim

I'd raised some issues, and I'm fascinated to read it this piece in The Freeman:

Job growth elsewhere gives context
to Wis. figures

July 23, 2011

MILWAUKEE - Gov. Scott Walker was correct this week in saying Wisconsin's net gain of 9,500 jobs last month was more than half the jobs added across the nation in that period - but looking at figures from other states makes the tally seem not quite as rosy.

While Wisconsin's monthly job numbers are generally released with little fanfare, Walker held a news conference Thursday to call attention to June's figure. He revealed that Wisconsin had added 12,900 private-sector jobs and lost 3,400 government jobs, for a net gain of 9,500 jobs.


Meanwhile, he noted, the U.S. recorded a net increase of 18,000 jobs for the month. All numbers are seasonally adjusted.


"In light of national job numbers ... our efforts in Wisconsin stand out," he said.

Comparing the Wisconsin and U.S. figures directly, however, could lead to a faulty inference — that the bulk of the new U.S. jobs were in Wisconsin. As it turns out, that's far from the case...









1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I keep reading this circle of confusion from out west and fail to understand the math.