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One month up, next month down
One month after celebrating an upbeat jobs report, Gov. Scott Walker"s administration announced Aug. 18, 2011 that the gains were essentially erased.
The centerpiece pledge of Walker"s campaign was that the state would create 250,000 private-sector jobs by the end of his four-year term. On Aug. 18, the state announced that Wisconsin lost 12,500 private-sector jobs in July 2011 -- the deepest single-month decline since the depths of the 2008-'09 recession.
That compares with an increase of 12,900 jobs announced a month earlier.
Here"s a graphic that summarizes on a month-to-month basis how Walker"s promise is faring.
The monthly jobs reports are preliminary. A more accurate picture will come in September, when a report is released measuring the first quarter activity for 2011-- the first three months that Walker was in office.
The governor"s office says it plans to use those quarterly figures as its official yardstick on the promise. Until then, they -- and we -- will use the monthly reports.
The latest report means there have been 28,700 jobs created since Walker took over as governor, meaning he has 221,300 more to meet his pledge. And this one remains In the Works.
Our Sources
Monthly jobs report for July 2011