Wisconsin job creation lagging behind

To the Editor:

National jobless claims for the week ending March 16 are at 336,000. That is a good number. That number was consistently above 400,000 and as high as 474,000 when unemployment was at 9 percent.

National unemployment is now at 7.7 percent. Things are getting better across the country, but not so in Wisconsin, where the “job creators” get the tax breaks and the people that buy goods and services get their wages cut. It is happening just as I feared. Wisconsin is in a downward spiral where reduced wages lead to more reduced wages and loss of jobs leads to more jobs lost.

Check out bls.gov/eag/eag.wi. It says that in Wisconsin the unemployment rate was back at 7 percent in January 2013. That rate had dropped to 6.7 percent in November 2012. This report says that in August 2012, the civilian labor force was at 3,046,400 and in January 2013, the civilian labor force was at 3,050,200. That is an increase of only 3,800 jobs in five months.

In that five months, the U.S. added about 880,000 jobs. Wisconsin is lagging way behind. It is not working.

David Groh

St. Germain, Wis.