2013 job numbers confirm it: we're slowing down under Gov. Walker

Walker's 3-year jobs average is nearly 10 percent slower than Gov. Doyle's last year of recovery

Gov. Scott Walker and his administration went to dubious lengths in previous months to skew job numbers in their favor -- including using job numbers from preliminary estimates, a method of calculation that Walker previously criticized.

Today, hidden under the headlines of a DWD press release (PDF), the Walker administration released job numbers for the year 2013. The outlook is not good.

Though the state was able to create 28,006 private sector jobs last year, that number is significantly smaller than what Walker promised he could create when he ran for governor in 2010. In fact, that year, the last in which Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was in office, saw 33,658 private sector jobs created.

Job growth under Scott Walker during 2013 is almost 17 percent slower than what it was during Doyle’s last year. The past three years haven’t been all too great either: 91,678 jobs have been created since Walker became governor, which averages out to about 30,559 jobs per year -- again, slower growth than Gov. Jim Doyle’s last year of office, when Wisconsin’s economy began its recovery.

In comparison to the recovery we saw under Doyle’s last year, Walker is failing. How is he holding up when it comes to his campaign promise of 250,000 jobs? If there is such a thing as an “F-minus,” Walker is achieving it.

As already mentioned, the first three years of Walker’s tenure Wisconsin saw 91,678 jobs, averaging out to about 30,559 created per year. To have reached his pledge, however, Wisconsin had to create 62,500 jobs per year. By year three (which is what the end of 2013 was), Walker needed to create 187,500 jobs.

In short, Wisconsin under Walker is creating less than 50 percent of what he promised. And Walker himself wants to be judged on that measure.

During the campaign, on Feb. 28, 2010, Walker appeared on the TV show UpFront with Mike Gousha. He was asked whether he should be held to the 250,000 promise.

“Absolutely,” he said. “To me, 250,000 is a minimum. It’s just a base.”

Gov. Walker won’t reach that base -- he won’t even reach his 2010 gubernatorial opponent’s base. And now, it’s clear that Walker won’t even reach the jobs numbers we would have seen if we had kept pace under Gov. Doyle.

This is called “progress?” No. It’s called going backwards. Our job growth has slowed down, not improved, under Walker.

Put another way: It’s NOT working.