State Added 23K Private Sector Jobs In 2012

New benchmarked numbers released by the state show Wisconsin added just under 24,000 private sector jobs in 2012.

Every so often the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics adjust numbers from its monthly surveys of employers to make sure they’re based on the best available data. As of right now that data shows that during all of 2012, Wisconsin added 23,800 private sector jobs.

That’s more than double what the monthly surveys had initially indicated. But Labor Economist Laura Dresser with the Center on Wisconsin Strategies says it’s pretty small when you put it in the context of the overall state economy.

“Wisconsin’s labor market has almost 3,000,000 jobs in it. And that’s an addition of about 2,000 jobs a month.”

Dresser says at that rate it will take many years to replace the hundreds of thousands of jobs Wisconsin lost in the recession: “It’s very slow growth relative to the national trend of job growth, and the regional.”

These numbers are not written in stone. Later this year the federal government will finalize job numbers for 2012 that are more thorough and accurate. But as of right now, the best available data shows Wisconsin has added 53,600 private sector jobs since Governor Walker took office.

In addition to updated job numbers for 2012, estimates from a survey of employers showed the state added 12,400 private sector jobs in January. At the same time, a separate survey of Wisconsin households showed a drop in employment, as the unemployment rate went up from 6.7 to 7 percent.