Jobless rate at 3%
December unemployment rate ties state’s lowest record.
Seven years after the last recession, as labor markets tighten across the nation, Wisconsin’s estimated unemployment rate dipped to 3.0%, matching the lowest rate on record, while the state set records for the total number employed.
According to preliminary data Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development, the number of individuals who are employed in Wisconsin’s private sector set a record in December, as did the size of the state’s labor force.
In the previous eight months, the state’s unemployment rate has fluctuated between 3.1% and 3.5%.
As competition around the nation heats up for workers, in a way not last seen since the late 1990s, officials in Wisconsin vowed to step up their job training efforts.
“As we move forward, we will continue to develop comprehensive plans and programs that prepare all individuals, regardless of age, education and barriers to employment, to enter into one of the thousands of gainful employment opportunities Wisconsin has to offer,” Ray Allen, secretary of workforce development, said in a statement.
Thursday’s state jobs report also showed the December unemployment rate far below the 9.2% in the worst months of the last recession in 2010.
The tight national job market, however, hasn’t yet translated into prolonged wage growth. Many of the nation’s new jobs are in low-skill, low-wage sectors.
The unemployment rate, as it’s calculated in the United States, doesn’t reflect income levels or other changes in the job market at a time of economic change.
The index equally counts people as employed, regardless of whether they work part-time at minimum wage or have full-time jobs that pay well. It doesn’t count those who are unemployed if they haven’t been looking for work, meaning the index improves as people quit looking for work.
Monthly data for the unemployment rate are subject to frequent retroactive revisions because they’re taken from surveys with small sample sizes.