Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Latest In The Mess That Is Scott Walker

Wisconsin Missing Out On U.S. Job Gains

"The rest of the nation is moving upwards. We're one of the few states moving downward. There's something wrong," said economist Steven Deller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The United States as a whole has added private-sector jobs 23 months in a row, including almost a half million jobs in the past two months.

Wisconsin has lost more private-sector jobs (an estimated 27,700) than any state in the country since the middle of last year (July through December), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only one other state, Missouri, is close, losing about 19,000 jobs in that stretch.



Statewide, 311 of 424 school districts, or 73% of districts, reported cutting teachers this year.

Overall, public schools in Wisconsin are employing 1,446 fewer teachers this year than they did in the 2010-11 school year. This represents a 2.4% loss in full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff at a time when student enrollment is stable.
The largest cuts statewide were to school librarians and career and technical education, special education, and reading teachers. For the current school year, there are 414 fewer elementary teachers in public schools, which is a staffing cut of about 2% statewide.




Under Gov. Scott Walker's policies, the state of Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state. All of Wisconsin's neighbor states gained jobs -- as did 44 of 50 states overall -- yet Wisconsin lost 12,500 jobs during Walker's first year in office, three times as many jobs as second place Missouri lost. The ad highlights not only this record, but the other key things Walker did to cut jobs and aid his wealthy allies.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin project that jobs will continue to leave the state, projecting that current policies will eliminate more than 20,000 additional jobs. Walker also canceled a planned high-speed rail line, scared off wind power investment in the state and cut unemployment insurance funds for working families temporarily hurt by the bad economy. All of these moves added to the job losses or pain felt by Wisconsin's working families.

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