| Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development News Release | |
|---|---|
| Thursday, April 15, 2004 Governor Jim Doyle Secretary Roberta Gassman |
News Media Contact Rose Lynch 608/266-6753 Terry Ludeman 608/267-3262 AUDIO: Comm Director Rose Lynch (:55 mp3) e-mail: news@dwd.state.wi.us fax: 608/266-1784 |
Madison – Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman today announced that Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March 2004 is estimated at 5.1 percent in preliminary figures. The March 2003 seasonally adjusted rate was 5.8 percent and the February 2004 seasonally adjusted rate was 5.2 percent. The March 2004 seasonally adjusted rate for the United States was estimated at 5.7 percent.
“While Wisconsin’s job market experience last month shows improvement over one year ago and the prior month, difficulties with manufacturing continue to weigh upon the state’s struggling labor market,” Secretary Gassman said.
Job growth in the nonfarm wage and salary economy was positive, but not robust. Wisconsin’s increase between February and March was 13,400 jobs, which is near the seasonal norm. Over the past 12 years, the normal increase in jobs between February and March has been just under 9,000. Industries seeing the biggest increases were construction, trade, leisure and hospitality and government. Although the government sector saw an increase of 2,400 jobs between February and March, the government sector remains 6,800 jobs below the March 2003 level. Construction, trade, private education and health services, leisure and hospitality have all seen sizeable increases from last year’s March figure. Although manufacturing losses in March 2004 are fairly small, that industry is still reporting losses. Manufacturing is down 4,700 jobs from March of 2003 and lost 1,600 jobs between February and March.
In unadjusted figures, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 6.2 percent compared to 6.9 percent in March of 2003 and 6.5 percent in February of 2004. The number of people reported to be unemployed in Wisconsin’s labor market was estimated at 191,200 for March compared to 200,100 in February and 209,800 in March of 2003. That was the fewest number of people unemployed in March in Wisconsin since March of 2001, the beginning of the latest national recession. The drop in unemployment rates was more attributable to a decrease in job seekers than to an increase in employment. There were 6,900 fewer people in the labor force in March than in February. The number of people estimated to be employed increased by 2,200 from February figures. There are 64,700 more people employed in Wisconsin in March 2004 than there were in March 2003. The national unadjusted unemployment rate for March 2004 was 6.0 percent.
March employment and unemployment figures for individual counties will be available April 21. This release also is available at www.dwd.state.wi.us/lmi.
|
WISCONSIN LABOR FORCE SUMMARY |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
NET CHANGE FROM |
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|
ITEM |
PRELIM. MAR 04 |
FINAL FEB 04 |
YEAR AGO MAR 03 |
MONTH AGO |
YEAR AGO |
||
|
PLACE OF RESIDENCE DATA |
|||||||
|
CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE |
3092.8 |
3099.7 |
3046.8 |
-6.9 |
46.0 |
||
|
UNEMPLOYMENT |
191.2 |
200.1 |
209.8 |
-8.9 |
-18.6 |
||
|
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE |
6.2 |
6.5 |
6.9 |
-0.3 |
-0.7 |
||
|
EMPLOYMENT (1) |
2901.7 |
2899.5 |
2837.0 |
2.2 |
64.7 |
||
|
PLACE OF WORK DATA |
|
||||||
|
NONFARM WAGE & SALARY |
2761.4 |
2748 |
2726.6 |
13.4 |
34.8 |
||
|
TOTAL PRIVATE |
2342 |
2331 |
2300.4 |
11.0 |
41.6 |
||
|
GOODS PRODUCING |
617.1 |
613.9 |
614 |
3.2 |
3.1 |
||
|
NATURAL RESOURCES & MINING |
3.4 |
3.1 |
3.2 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
||
|
CONSTRUCTION |
114.2 |
109.7 |
106.6 |
4.5 |
7.6 |
||
|
MANUFACTURING |
499.5 |
501.1 |
504.2 |
-1.6 |
-4.7 |
||
|
Durable Goods |
308 |
309.8 |
311.6 |
-1.8 |
-3.6 |
||
|
Nondurable Goods |
191.5 |
191.3 |
192.6 |
0.2 |
-1.1 |
||
|
SERVICE PRODUCING |
2144.3 |
2134.1 |
2112.6 |
10.2 |
31.7 |
||
|
TRADE |
430.0 |
426.9 |
418.5 |
3.1 |
11.5 |
||
|
Wholesale Trade |
114.9 |
113.3 |
111.3 |
1.6 |
3.6 |
||
|
Retail Trade |
315.1 |
313.6 |
307.2 |
1.5 |
7.9 |
||
|
TRANS., WAREHOUSE, & UTILITIES |
104.7 |
104.6 |
103.3 |
0.1 |
1.4 |
||
|
Utilities |
11.7 |
11.8 |
11.4 |
-0.1 |
0.3 |
||
|
Information |
48.9 |
49.2 |
50.1 |
-0.3 |
-1.2 |
||
|
FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES |
158.8 |
159.5 |
155 |
-0.7 |
3.8 |
||
|
Finance and Insurance |
131.3 |
131.7 |
129.1 |
-0.4 |
2.2 |
||
|
Real Estate, Rental, & Lease |
27.5 |
27.8 |
25.9 |
-0.3 |
1.6 |
||
|
PROFESSIONAL & BUSINESS SERVICES .. |
242.8 |
242 |
238.3 |
0.8 |
4.5 |
||
|
Prof., Scien., & Tech. Services |
88.3 |
87.4 |
90.5 |
0.9 |
-2.2 |
||
|
Mgmt. of Companies and Enterprises |
38.5 |
38.5 |
37.8 |
0.0 |
0.7 |
||
|
Admin. Support & Waste Mgmt. Services |
116 |
116.1 |
110 |
-0.1 |
6.0 |
||
|
EDUCATIONAL & HEALTH SERVICES |
375.5 |
374.8 |
361.9 |
0.7 |
13.6 |
||
|
Educational Services |
50.9 |
49.9 |
44.4 |
1.0 |
6.5 |
||
|
Health Care & Social Assistance |
324.6 |
324.9 |
317.5 |
-0.3 |
7.1 |
||
|
LEISURE & HOSPITALITY |
235.1 |
232.7 |
226.6 |
2.4 |
8.5 |
||
|
Arts, Entertain., & Recreation |
33.3 |
34 |
27.5 |
-0.7 |
5.8 |
||
|
Accommodation & Food Services |
201.8 |
198.7 |
199.1 |
3.1 |
2.7 |
||
|
OTHER SERVICES, except Public Admin |
129.1 |
127.4 |
132.7 |
1.7 |
-3.6 |
||
|
GOVERNMENT |
419.4 |
417 |
426.2 |
2.4 |
-6.8 |
||
|
Federal Government |
29.1 |
29.2 |
29.7 |
-0.1 |
-0.6 |
||
|
State Government |
100.3 |
99.4 |
103.8 |
0.9 |
-3.5 |
||
|
Local Government |
290 |
288.4 |
292.7 |
1.6 |
-2.7 |
||
|
|
|||||||
|
PERSONS INVOLVED IN L-M DISPUTES |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
-0.5 |
||
|
(1) Includes L-M Disputes |
|
||||||
|
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED LABOR FORCE ESTIMATES |
|||||||
|
CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE |
3110.5 |
3119.4 |
3065.2 |
-8.9 |
45.3 |
||
|
UNEMPLOYMENT |
158.6 |
163.7 |
178.0 |
-5.1 |
-19.4 |
||
|
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE |
5.1 |
5.2 |
5.8 |
-0.1 |
-0.7 |
||
|
EMPLOYMENT |
2951.9 |
2955.7 |
2887.1 |
-3.8 |
64.8 |
||
|
NONFARM WAGE & SALARY |
2798.8 |
2796.3 |
2774.4 |
2.5 |
24.4 |
||
*Differences in totals may occur as a result of rounding.
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Content Contact: Rose Lynch