Wisconsin Loses 1,100 Private-Sector Jobs In March

Preliminary numbers show Wisconsin employers lost 1,100 private-sector jobs in the month of March.

The 1,100 figure is seasonally adjusted and comes from a monthly survey of employers. Coupled with public-sector job losses, it found Wisconsin lost a total of 8,500 jobs in March.

A separate, smaller survey of households saw a slight increase in overall employment. That survey placed Wisconsin’s unemployment rate at 7.1 percent. The national unemployment rate is 7.6 percent.

Both surveys are subject to wide margins of error. For example, the February employer numbers were adjusted upward by 3,000 this month, turning what had been a private-sector job loss for February into a job gain.

The most accurate numbers come from a quarterly census of employers. Through September of last year, they showed Wisconsin adding jobs half as fast as the rest of the nation and trailing all of its Midwest neighbors in job growth.