WI Tops List for Job Loss
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 - 7:38pm
By:
Maya Holmes
Photojournalist:
Harry Baker
FOX 21 News, KQDS-DT
SUPERIOR - Bad news came down for job sustainability in the state of Wisconsin.
Statistics show Wisconsin has lost more jobs in the past year than any other state.
"I think he's on the right progress," Douglas County Republican Party Chairman Daro Crandall said.
"The results speak for themselves, it's a joke," James Mattson of Superior said.
There's mixed reaction about Gov. Scott Walker as a report comes out about job loss in the state.
The problem is Walker promised to create more than 200,000 jobs.
"To be quite honest his government is very self-serving,” Micca Leider of Superior said. "It's not supporting anybody, it's supporting his own best interest."
A different report says Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has fallen.
The Walker administration says the state’s unemployment rate is at its lowest since 2008 adding more than 17,000 jobs this year.
"Look, here in Superior alone, we got Kestrel coming in bringing in at least 600 jobs alone," said Crandall.
However, stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor shows the state lost nearly 24,000 jobs from March 2011 to March 2012.
Of those, 17,000 were government jobs and 6,000 from the private sector.
"It seems that the policies that were supposedly coming through for job creation have done quite the opposite," said Mattson.
Governor Walker released a statement saying:
“Wisconsin’s economy is turning around, but there is still a lot of work to do. The state has added over 15,000 private sector jobs since the start of the year, and the state’s unemployment rate is down to 6.8 percent. A year ago the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent, now it’s at its lowest since 2008.”
Walker supporters say the national economy is to blame.
“Governor Walker can only do so much in the state of Wisconsin,” said Crandall. "There's a national economy that still comes to play in things."
Others say it has more to do with his ideologies.
"His priorities are not where they should be,” said Leider. "Once he gets those priorities where they should be I feel the economy would turn around."
Whether Governor Walker has time to turn the economy around will be determined in June when voters head to the poll for his recall election.