Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development

Thursday, August 16, 2001 Governor Scott McCallum Secretary Jennifer Reinert

News Media Contact Christopher Marschman 608/261-6705 e-mail: news@dwd.state.wi.us fax: 608/266-1784

Contact: Terry Ludeman, 608/267-3262

MADISON – The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today announced the state’s preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the month of July was 4.4 percent, equaling the revised rate for the month of June, which also stood at 4.4 percent. The national seasonally adjusted rate for July was 4.5 percent, which was also unchanged from June.

"Overall last month we saw no significant changes in Wisconsin unemployment," said DWD Secretary Jennifer Reinert. "The end of school adversely affected unemployment last month, as it does each year, while construction and manufacturing saw increases over the month," she said.

There was very little change in unemployment figures for Wisconsin in July in figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday. The unadjusted rate for Wisconsin in July was also 4.4 percent. It had been 4.5 percent in June. The unadjusted rate for the nation was 4.7 percent in July. There were 137,800 people reported as unemployed in Wisconsin for the month compared to 112,500 one year ago. This in a labor force of 3,128,300 Wisconsin residents, 2,990,500 of whom were employed. The average unemployment rate for July in the 1990 through 2000 period was 4.0 percent with a high of 5.2 percent in 1992 and a low of 2.9 percent in 1999.

Nonfarm wage and salary employment decreased by 26,700 jobs. The loss of jobs was the result of local government, particularly local school districts, paring back employment as the school year ended. Manufacturing firms and workers, particularly those in the durable goods industries continue to be faced with a very soft market place. Durable goods manufacturing continues to be very sluggish, with a decrease of slightly less than 2,500 jobs. Nondurable manufacturing saw some improvement with an increase of slightly over 4,100 jobs. This brought the net gain of jobs in manufacturing to 1,700. Over the year, manufacturing is down 26,700 jobs. Industries that reflected gains for the month included construction; finance, insurance and real estate; and services.

Note to news media

County employment and unemployment figures for July should be available on August 22. This release is available on the department Internet site at: http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/lmi

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