439,400 out of work in state
Wisconsin unemployment rate rises above 14%
An estimated 439,400 people — roughly one in seven workers — in Wisconsin lost their jobs in April, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the Department of Workforce Development.
The figures show the economic devastation caused by the pandemic last month.
The job losses raised the state’s unemployment rate to 14.2%, up from 3.1% in March when state restrictions shut down many businesses to limit the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The state’s unemployment rate stood at 3.3% in April 2019.
The unemployment rate is higher than in the aftermath of the financial crisis when it came close to 10% and the highest since the Great Depression.
“This is a totally different phenomenon in its severity and its rapidity,” Dennis Winters, chief economist for the Department of Workforce Development, said during a conference call Thursday.
About 580,000 people in Wisconsin have filed for unemployment benefits since March 15, according to weekly data posted by the state.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was 14.7%, and 38.6 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past nine weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The service sector — the largest of the U.S. economy — has been hit much harder than manufacturing, with a loss of 387,500 jobs in April in Wisconsin.
Predictably, the largest loss of jobs has been in the hospitality and food service industries as restaurants and hotels closed. An estimated 133,800 jobs were lost in those industries last month.
An additional 39,300 jobs in retail were lost as stores closed. And 23,200 jobs were lost in arts, entertainment and recreation.
Health care — which saw only one month of job declines in the years after the financial crisis — lost 55,500 jobs as dental, physical therapy and other clinics closed or limited the number of patients.
Manufacturing also has been hard hit by the crisis, with 40,800 jobs lost last month. And a total of 53,300 jobs in state and local government were lost.
New unemployment claims have leveled off in recent weeks and businesses are beginning to reopen. But the first indications of how many people are being called back to work won’t be known until July when the department releases figures for June.