Governor Scott Walker says Wisconsin's contentious recall elections are to blame for Wisconsin ranking 42nd in the nation in job growth.

Numbers released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that from June of 2011 to June of 2012, Wisconsin saw private sector job growth at a rate of just one-point-five percent.  Not only was that 42nd in the nation, it also trailed every one of Wisconsin's Midwest neighbors.

Walker told reporters he was not surprised by the numbers given what he heard from employers in the runup to his June recall election.  He said he was confident they would improve.

"I would imagine the report that we'll get, and it's a six-month lag time through the end of 2012 and the subsequent reports we'll see in 2013 and beyond will be much more positive and I think acccelerated because a lot of that interest was pent up pending the recall results," he says.

The job numbers come from a detailed census of almost all the state's employers.  It's the same metric the governor himself has stressed as the best way to measure job growth in Wisconsin.