Department of Workforce Development

MADISON – The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today announced the state’s preliminary unemployment rate for the month of November rose to 4.3 percent, up from the official rate for the month of October, which stood at 3.9 percent. When seasonally adjusted, the state’s unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent in November compared to 4.5 percent in October. The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 5.7% from 5.4% percent seasonally adjusted.

"Employment information for Wisconsin released today indicates the jobless picture deteriorated between October and November. This suggests that Wisconsin, like the rest of the nation, continues to feel the fallout of the terrorist attack on America and the effects of a struggling national economy," said DWD Secretary Jennifer Reinert.

The number of nonfarm wage and salary jobs in the state dropped by about 5,400 between October and November. Since 1994, the state has averaged a job gain of about 5,400 between October and November. The number of jobs estimated for November was 2,854,400, for October it was 2,859,800. This also represented a decrease of 16,483 from the estimate for November of 2000.

Manufacturing continues to be greatly affected by the national slowdown with another 5,700 jobs being lost in this sector. Construction employment was off by about 5,400 between October and November. It is not abnormal to see a slight loss in construction activities between October and November, but the average loss since 1994 has been about 3,400 jobs. Trade, particularly retail trade saw a gain of 8,200 jobs between October and November. This is very close to a normal increase in trade for the month. Services saw a decrease of 4,400 jobs, which was very close to the normal October to November change.

"Though the state continues to struggle with higher unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector, healthy retail figures are a good sign that businesses and consumers are more confident about the economy," Secretary Reinert said. "New claims for unemployment have leveled off since September 11, and were actually lower last week than they were for the same week in 2000, which has not happened since January of this year," she added.

County employment and unemployment figures for November should be available on January 2, 2002. This release is available on the department Internet site: http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/lmi

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