WisBusiness: State forecasts weak recovery in 2010

By WisBusiness staff

The job losses Wisconsin has suffered during the current economic downturn are the worst of any single recession since World War II, the Department of Revenue said Thursday in forecasting a weak recovery.

The 163,800 jobs lost also exceeds the state’s earlier projections. In November, Revenue projected a peak-to-trough job loss of 143,000 jobs. That was less than the state had predicted in June, when it forecast a loss of 155,300 total lost jobs.

The new outlook includes a projection of a weak recovery in 2010.

“The still-weak labor market, cautious consumers, tight credit markets and the wobbly housing sector will moderate the pace of the recovery,” the executive summary states.

Wisconsin employment declined 0.5 percent in 2008 and is expected to drop 4 percent in 2009 once the final analysis is done. The state is expected to begin adding jobs in the second quarter of 2010, though the year overall is still expected to post a decline of 0.7 percent.

*Read the latest report:

http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ra/econ/2009/execsumm.pdf

*Read the November outlook:

http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ra/0911/0911.html