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MADISON – The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today released the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates of unemployment and employment statistics for metro areas, major cities, and counties in Wisconsin. The estimates include updates for August 2016 and the preliminary estimates for September 2016. In brief, the not-seasonally adjusted estimates showed:
* Metropolitan Statistical Areas: Preliminary September 2016 unemployment rates decreased in all areas over both the month and the year when compared to August 2016 and September 2015. The largest one month decline was 0.9 percent in Racine. The latest rates ranged from 2.6 percent in Madison to 4.4 percent in Racine.
* Municipalities: Preliminary September 2016 rates decreased in all of the state’s 32 largest municipalities when compared to August 2016. The latest rates ranged from 2.4 percent in Fitchburg to 5.6 percent in Racine. The not-seasonally adjusted data also showed rates decreased or stayed the same in 31 of the 32 municipalities when comparing to September 2015 rates.
* Counties: Preliminary September 2016 rates decreased in all 72 counties when compared to August 2016 rates, and decreased or remained the same in 71 of 72 counties when compared to September 2015 rates. The latest rates ranged from 2.6 percent in Dane, Green, Iowa and Lafayette to 6.6 percent in Menominee.
The release of the September 2016 local rates follows last week’s release of BLS monthly estimates showing a preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 4.1 percent in September 2016, down from August and at its lowest rate since February 2001. The state also added a significant 36,000 total non-farm jobs and 31,500 private sector jobs over the year ending in September 2016.
Other indicators of the state of Wisconsin’s economy include:
* Year 2016 initial UI claims are running at their lowest level since 1989.
* Continuing unemployment claims in Wisconsin are running the lowest in at least the past 30 years.
* Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate outpaces the national rate by 5.5 percentage points.
* Wisconsin was one of only 10 states with an annual average unemployment rate in 2015 lower than 2007, the year that the Great Recession began.
* Wisconsin had the sixth-highest rate of growth in average weekly private sector wages from December 2014 to December 2015, according to Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages data.
