Walker admin. spins July unemployment numbers

Market fluctuations in August to blame for jobs lost in July

After the June jobs report for Wisconsin came out last month, Gov. Walker was quick to point out the improvements to the state, citing it as evidence that Wisconsin was on the fast track to gaining the 250,000 jobs he promised during his campaign. That goal, by the way, would eliminate unemployment completely, to 0.0 percent.

The state GOP also made the (false) claim that the number of jobs created in Wisconsin numbered half of the jobs created in the entire United States. The net number of jobs created across the country in June numbered more than 18,000. Wisconsin had a net increase of 9,500, but other states also had net increases that made the party's claim a foolish one to make (it didn't take into account the gross number of jobs created, without the number of lost jobs subtracted).

But even with an increase in jobs, the unemployment rate still went up...which meant more people were trying to get jobs in our state, those who had previously given up. This didn't matter...in fact, the governor's office tried to spin a positive on the higher number!

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate did rise two-tenths of a percent to 7.6% [in June].

Walker’s labor chief, Scott Baumbach, said it was due to more job seekers entering the workforce with optimism for finding something.

But news from July that came out today doesn't bode well with the optimism Walker has tried to employ previously.

Wisconsin lost 12,500 private sector jobs last month, equaling the total number of those same jobs gained in June.

I don't celebrate those numbers; I abhor them. I'd LIKE for Gov. Walker's plans to work, would LOVE if someway we were able to get employment back on track in Wisconsin. The fact is, however, Walker's policies haven't saved us the way the governor pretended they had in June.

So our losses last month erase our gains from the month before. Our unemployment rate has jumped to 7.8 percent, up from 7.4 percent from when Walker took office.

The Walker administration, of course, has made a major decision upon reviewing this evidence: they've decided to blame Washington.

“The wild market fluctuations during the debt ceiling negotiations, the European debt crisis and other factors contributed to a great deal of uncertainty, which may very well have affected Wisconsin’s jobs numbers given our state’s ties to the national economy,” DWD Secretary Scott Baumbach said in a written statement released Thursday.

Except the jobless rate across the country actually went down, not up, in July, from 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent. The uncertainty of the debt ceiling didn't occur until late July, hardly affecting that month's employment outlook. And those "market fluctuations" that really did a number on Wisconsin in July didn't even start happening until after the month was over!

In fact, between July 1 and August 1, the Dow Jones Industrial fluctuated very little. It started the month at 12,582 points, reached a peak of 12,724, and ended at its lowest point of 12,143. As of today, it sits at 10,990.

It's no surprise that Gov. Walker and his administration are trying to put the blame elsewhere for the jobs lost in July; governors from every state, from every political party, do that all the time. But the Walker administration does itself no favor, nor the people of Wisconsin, by casting blame where it's nonexistent. Fairy tales about the fluctuations of markets being the reason behind our negative job numbers won't rest well with unemployed Wisconsinites trying to find work in our state.