Keeps inching forward ... though inches won't be enough to meet the pledge

The most recent state jobs report says Gov. Scott Walker inched closer to meeting his top campaign promise of adding 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term.

The report, issued Dec. 19, 2013 says the state added an estimated 4,000 private-sector jobs in November.

There were two other developments that factor into this month's jobs count.

First, the state revised the October jobs count up by 2,300 jobs, pushing that month's increase to 14,700. That's the second largest monthly increase for this year, behind the June count of 15,600.

Second, the state's job count for all of 2012 was revised as well, up by 1,590 to a total of  33,872. That's important because these numbers are from the federal government's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which collects data from nearly every employer in the state.

We use a combination of the best-available numbers to measure Walker's progress on meeting his 250,000 jobs promise. For the first two years of his term the annual reports say the state added 63,672 jobs. For 2013, we add to that the running total of monthly Current Employment Survey figures.

The monthly figures show that the state added an estimated 40,700 jobs in the first 11 months of 2013. That compares with 29,800 in 2011 and 33,872 in 2012. (Data collection lags six months, and the final QCEW tally for 2013 won't be available until the middle of next year.)

So lets tally up.

The latest monthly report, and revisions to previous reports, boost Walker's tally by 10,890 jobs. That brings the total number of jobs added since he took office to an estimated 104,372, or about 42 percent of the total the governor promised.

Put another way, he's got 145,628 jobs to add with 13 months to go. You can see an updated version of our monthly jobs graphic here.

We will keep this rating at In the Works.