Broad Agreement: Walker Job Creation Promise Will Fail
Though Scott Walker promised repeatedly in his 2010 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns he'd oversee the creation of 250,000 new private-sector jobs in a first term, only 106,100 such jobs - - less than half the promised total - - have been created during his first three years in office.
The source for that computed shortfall?
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development - - a Walker cabinet agency run by his appointees - - and reported by the Journal Sentinel.
The report also shows a drop in the state's unemployment rate, and the slowly improving national economy should lift Wisconsin's boat, too - - but the so-so jobs gains under Walker could have been spun more positively by his handlers if Walker had not over-promised during his campaign.
For the record - - this is the second time that a Walker administration cabinet department projected that Walker would fall far short of the 250,000-new-jobs pledge, as The Wisconsin State Journal reported in October, 2011:
The Department of Revenue report released Friday predicts that by 2014, the state will have added only 136,000 jobs in the private sector compared with 2010. The job growth estimate was down 43,000 from the department's previous report released in June.
Maybe someday we'll find out how the tightly-controlled Walker campaign and cautious candidate himself could have fallen into this self-inflicted trap.
That tactical mistake, combined with documented performance failures at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation - - a cabinet department remade into a public-private corporation to give Walker a chance as agency chairman to showcase executive, job-creating skills - - will be a drag on Walker's 2014 re-election campaign and possible 2016 national GOP presidential candidacy.
The 2014 election is less than nine months away - - a pretty long time in the worlds of politics and economic data collection - - and Wisconsin's economy could squeeze out enough growth to boost Wisconsin from the 37th job-growth ranking nationally that the Journal Sentinel says is our current, sluggish lot:
The most recent quarterly census, released in December, showed that Wisconsin added private-sector jobs at a 1.0% rate in the 12 months from June 2012 through June 2013, which ranked the state 37th among the 50 states in the pace of job creation during that period. The quarterly report tracks the economy in rolling 12-month increments, measured every three months.
Under the quarterly census, Wisconsin has trailed the national rate of job creation since July 2011. The United States created private-sector jobs at a rate of 1.9% in the latest 12-month period, nearly double Wisconsin's 1.0% rate.
The newspaper also quotes an expert who doesn't think this suggests that Walker can keep the jobs-promise:
Mathematically, it appears unlikely that Wisconsin will meet Walker's employment objectives, said Marquette University economics professor Abdur Chowdhury.
"Even with an estimated 106,000 private-sector jobs created in the last three years, Gov. Scott Walker is less than halfway toward meeting his promise," Chowdhury said. "To meet Walker's 250,000 pledge, the state would have to create in one year 38,000 more jobs than during the previous three years combined."
A point I'd noted before, including in January when previewing Walker's State of the State speech:
...he's all-but-mathematically eliminated from, or even getting close to keeping his 2010 campaign's signature promise...Cross-posted at Purple Wisconsin.
7 comments:
Fortunately for Governor Wanker his challenger ary Burke refuses to play gotcha politics and will not be pointing this fact out. Campaign consultants have warned that breaking the silence will possibly threaten her tenuous grip on the moderate teahadist demographic.
"Mary Burke refuses to play gotcha politics and will not be pointing this fact out." The 'dems' are afraid they might win if the actually fight the campaign, and their corporate masters would be displeased…
According to the recent Bruce Murphy article(http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2014/02/25/murphys-law-did-gov-walker-have-a-secret-email-system/), the 250,000 promise was purely from Walker, and notable others in the Party had problems with what he was doing:
"...The source was certainly well-placed and attended a political meeting at the governor’s mansion attended by Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, and Congressmen F. James Sensenbrenner, Paul Ryan and Sean Duffy.
Ryan and Johnson were angry because they felt Act 10 was hurting all Republicans, the source says. “They were saying, “you need to tell us is there going to be any Republican campaign operation in Wisconsin other than for Gov. Walker?’”
They were concerned that Walker loyalists appointed to run the Republican Party of Wisconsin, including state chair Brad Courtney, weren’t up to the job.
“There was a lot of tension in the room. Ryan didn’t have a lot of respect for Walker, you could tell.” And Johnson told Walker he should drop his campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs, because it was impossible to achieve..."
Wisconsinites are definitely feeling the pain from Walker's actions, so the Democratic Party had better take up these GOP blunders to set themselves apart from the disaster these creeps
have brought upon us.
No help in January with zero private sector jobs added, and February had weeks with Wisconsin having the biggest increase in unemployment claims.
They'll be lucky to be halfway to 250,000 jobs, which is pathetic compared to states like Minnesota and the rate of the rest of the country as a whole
That's just terrible that he only created 100,000 new jobs.
Let's recall him again when he's re-elected
I understand you GOP operatives and other Baggers think math is a liberal plot, but the reality is that the Obama recovery created 150,000 jobs and Walker policies LOST 50,000. And that 50,000 number is likely to go up in the next 2 months
But, the Obama created jobs were government sector jobs to sell us on Obamacare.
Here's a slick sales pitch by the ringleader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnW3xkHxIEQ
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