Contact:
Rose Lynch (608) 266-6753
Madison – Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman today announced that Wisconsin’s unadjusted unemployment rate is reported to be 4.8 percent for May 2004, which is down from 5.1 percent in April.
“Signs that Wisconsin’s economy continues to improve are evident in the May labor market figures, which show gains in employment along with lower unemployment when compared to April,” Gassman said. “Wisconsin’s labor market is also improved over last year with 41,100 more private sector jobs than May 2003, including 4,100 more in manufacturing.
Wisconsin’s workers and businesses experienced a slight reduction in unemployment between April and May 2004. There were 157,900 Wisconsin residents estimated to be unemployed in April and 147,200 in May. Accompanying the reduction in unemployment was an increase in the number of residents estimated to be employed. That figure increased from 2,923,700 in April to 2,950,600 in May. Based on those estimates, the unemployment rate also decreased from 5.1 percent in April to 4.8 percent in May.
Although the direction for unemployment rate change between April and May was seasonal, the magnitude of the change was slightly less than seasonal. This resulted in a slight increase in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate between April and May. The seasonally adjusted rate for April was 4.6 percent, while the seasonally adjusted rate for May was 5.1 percent.
The first five months of 2004 have been decidedly better that the first five months of 2003. The average monthly unemployment rate for the first five months of the year for 2004 has been 5.7 percent compared to 6.4 percent for the same five-month period in 2003.
The improvement in employment has been due to increased opportunities in the private sector. For May, there were 2,412,700 jobs in the private sector in Wisconsin. This compares to 2,371,600 in May of 2003. That’s an increase of 41,100 jobs over last year’s figure. For the first five months of 2004, the private sector has been up an average of 38,300 jobs compared to the same period in 2003.
May employment and unemployment figures for individual counties will be available June 23. This release also is available at www.dwd.state.wi.us/lmi.
