Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in January, the lowest it’s been since 2001.
Preliminary numbers show the total number of people employed in Wisconsin increased, while the number of people unemployed went down. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate also compares favorably to the national rate, which was 4.8 percent in January.
The unemployment rate comes from a monthly survey of households. It provides an immediate snapshot of Wisconsin’s economy, but it has a wide margin of error. A separate monthly survey of employers shows the overall number of jobs in Wisconsin remained roughly flat.
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More accurate quarterly job numbers released this week presented more of a mixed bag for the state. They showed jobs growing in Wisconsin, but slower than in other states. They also showed Wisconsin lost about 4,000 manufacturing jobs even as other industries were growing.
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