Inequality In Milwaukee

2015 Milwaukee Summit - Marc Levine from L&S @ UWM on Vimeo.

Scott Walker & Wisconsin's Slow Job Growth

Following along the lines of a couple recent Brewtown Gumshoe entries (see further reading below), Marc V. Levine offers another take down of Scott Walker and his sycophants' drivel, Wisconsin's economy is nowhere near the 'head of the class'.

Wisconsin has consistently ranked in the 30s and 40s among states in the rate of annual employment growth since Scott Walker became governor in 2010, a major fall-off from the last year of the much-maligned Doyle administration, when Wisconsin ranked 14th. As I documented last year in a study, not only has Wisconsin's rate of employment growth consistently ranked toward the bottom of states since 2010, but all of the net job growth in Wisconsin since the end of the Great Recession has been in low-wage occupations, in jobs paying less than $12.50 an hour. 

Over the past four years, the state's economy has consistently lagged behind the national economy on key economic indicators. Since 2010, both Wisconsin's GDP growth and personal income growth have trailed the national rate. And employment growth in Wisconsin has underperformed the national rate by a staggering 50%. 

It has not always been this way. Between 1990 and 2010, employment growth in Wisconsin (19%) closely tracked the national rate (19.6%). In 2010, the year before Scott Walker took office, the rate of employment growth in Wisconsin was 40% higher than the national rate, thanks to an infusion of federal funds and the effects of the national macroeconomic stimulus. 

And now, while the Wisconsin economy continues to stagnate, the national economy is accelerating, with job growth during the final months of 2014 and early 2015 approaching the impressive rates of the 1990s. Wisconsin's pace of job growth continues to lag far behind the national rate; in 2014, according to the latest BLS numbers, employment grew in Wisconsin at less than three-quarters of the national rate.

For Further Reading:
Walker's Minions & Their Cherry-Picked Statistics
38th, For Republicans, Is Head Of The Class

The "Creative Class" Myth

For Further Reading:

Urban Development and the Politics of a Creative Class: Evidence from the Study of Artists

Theories of Urban Prosperity

Struggling With The Creative Class

The Fall Of The Creative Class

The Ruse of the Creative Class

The Curse of the Creative Class

There Is No Skills Shortage. Scott Walker Has Been Terrible For Wisconsin.

Two more memes debunked (again):

Existence of skills gap debated

Walker jobs promise appears out of reach

Weekend Reading

U.S. Jobs Total Surpasses Pre-Recession Level
Walker Job Promises Appear Out Of Reach
WMC Head, UWM Professor Discuss Wisconsin Job Creation
Sheriff David Clarke: You Just Can't Take Him Seriously
Chief Judge Tells Sheriff Clarke Probation Must Be Considered In Nearly All Sentencings
DA John Chisholm Fires Back At Sheriff David Clarke
Privatisation And Government Debt
American Fared Better After Great Depression Than Today

The False Promise Of The Entrepreneurial University

Entrepreneurial University Hype