The state of Wisconsin created 36,601 jobs last year, according to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, ranking the state 36th in the nation in private-sector job growth in 2015 according to numbers released today.
The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages is what economists regard as the “gold standard” of job metrics. Gov. Scott Walker himself has called the measure the “gold standard” for assessing his 2010 campaign pledge to create 250,000 jobs during his first term.
The numbers, which includes data from almost every employer in the country, also show that from 2011 through 2015, Wisconsin trailed all other Midwest states in private sector job growth, ranking 37th nationally.
The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry. The numbers for last year are being released now because there is a six-month lag before they’re reported because of the time it takes to process them.
Wisconsin’s overall growth rate of 1.3 percent placed the state 8th out of 10 Midwest states in for private-sector job growth in 2015 and well behind the national growth rate of 2.1 percent.
All told in the past five years, Wisconsin has added 161,823 jobs. That number is well shy of the 250,000 jobs that Walker promised to help the state add during his first four years in office.
