MON AM News: MMAC report shows ‘mixed’ employment trends for metro Milwaukee; Survey finds northeastern WI manufacturers concerned about worker retirements

May 12, 2025

— Just seven of the 23 economic indicators tracked by the MMAC improved over the year, the group’s March economic trends report shows, marking a slowdown from February’s 11 positive indicators.

Bret Mayborne, vice president of economic research for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, says employment trends for March were mixed.

While jobs in the region rose 0.2% over the year to 855,100, fewer than half of the metro area’s major industries added jobs during the same period. The year-over-year jobs boost was unchanged from February’s 0.2% increase.

“Uncertainty in the present economic environment, particularly in tariff policy and future price inflation, likely have some businesses pausing a bit until the picture clears,” Mayborne said.

While four of Milwaukee’s 10 top sectors for employment added jobs over the year, five lost jobs and one saw no change. The biggest increase, 2.5%, was in education and health services while the “other services” had a 2.3% increase.

The largest decline was seen in manufacturing jobs, which fell 1.9% from March 2024. Other indicators for manufacturing declined over the year, including average weekly hours for production workers falling 4.8%. At the same time, average weekly earnings fell by 0.8% and average weekly earnings fell by 5.5%, MMAC says.

Meanwhile, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for Wisconsin’s largest metro area rose 0.2 percentage points over the year to 3.8% in March, below the national rate of 4.2%.

The report also shows existing home sales in the area dropped 3.7% over the year, while mortgages increased 12.7% to reach 1,912, sending a “mixed” signal for local housing trends, the group says.

At the same time, passenger traffic at the Mitchell International Airport continues to dip, showing a decline for the sixth month in a row in March. The passenger total for the month was 554,503, which is 8.1% lower than the same point last year.

See the report.

— Many northeastern Wisconsin manufacturers are worried about their workers retiring, a recent survey in the region shows, though fewer respondents have a plan to address this coming challenge.

The Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance recently released the findings of the 2025 Aging Workforce study. Between February and March, the survey got responses from 65 companies that collectively employ nearly 15,000 people or 10% of the region’s manufacturing workforce.

Seventy-five percent of respondents expressed concern about retirements in their workforce while only 37% had a plan for how to deal with them. In a previous survey from 2017, the NEW Manufacturing Alliance found 85% of respondents were worried about the aging workforce.

Meanwhile, the average age for manufacturing workers in this year’s survey was 38, which is lower than the average age of 43 from the 2017 survey. By comparison, the national average for this measure is 44 years, the group notes.

The survey also found members of the Alliance tend to employ their workers for longer than the national average. For all production workers, the group’s average tenure was 9 years, well above the national average of 4.9 years. For engineering workers in the group, the average tenure was 10 years, compared to the national average of 4.9 years.

See more results.

— The entire financial aid system is threatened by President Donald Trump’s budget-cutting process, says Eric Fulcomer, president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

“But through this budget reconciliation process, there are significant threats to federal financial aid,” Fulcomer told WisPolitics’ “Capitol Chats” podcast. “We don’t know what might happen to the Pell program.” The Pell grant is a federal grant that helps low-income students pay for college.

Fulcomer also said he’s concerned about proposed changes to federal loan programs, including one that waives interest for students in need and another that provides unsubsidized graduate loans. He said 50% of the undergraduate students in independent colleges and universities borrow money from the federal government, and “almost all, probably 80 to 90%” of graduate students have a federal loan.

The private colleges association in Wisconsin is also asking for a significant raise in its state budget allocations for state grants. The association is proposing the Legislature double funding for the Wisconsin Grant, a grant for undergraduate students attending a nonprofit college, raising it from $57 million to $114 million.

Fulcomer said about 20% of students receive this grant, and it goes to the students “who need it most.” Fulcomer argued the maximum award of $4,400 for this grant in Wisconsin is too low compared to other states. Fulcomer said doubling this grant amount would make Wisconsin colleges more competitive and draw in more students.

“And what that would allow us to do is to keep more of our students here who have need, because we want them…to go to school here, and then to stay here and work,” Fulcomer said.

See more from the WisPolitics Friday Report.

— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is touting a bill that would require insurance companies to cover more treatments for birth defects, including dental and oral procedures that she says often get denied or delayed.

Baldwin, D-Madison, recently announced she’s reintroducing the federal legislation alongside a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Dubbed the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act, the bill was first introduced in 2018, according to the release.

The announcement references Aidan Abbott of Slinger, a patient with a rare congenital disease called ectodermal dysplasia whose insurer denied coverage for his dental work related to the condition. His family had “comprehensive” health insurance but had to pay out of pocket for treatment, the release shows.

Baldwin argues “there is no reason” big insurance companies should be able to deny coverage for treatment like this. But she says health plans “systematically and routinely” reject or delay claims for birth defects by “wrongfully” categorizing some treatments or body parts as cosmetic and not medically necessary.

“For millions of Americans, medically necessary care for birth defects can cost thousands of dollars out of pocket, or for others, it is entirely out of reach because of the cost — despite having health insurance,” she said in a statement.

Under the bill, all group and individual health plans would need to cover outpatient and inpatient care for a congenital anomaly or birth defect that mainly impacts the appearance or function of the eyes, ears, teeth, mouth or jaw, according to an overview from Baldwin’s office.

That coverage would have to include care to “improve, repair, or restore function” due to such defects, including treatment that the doctor determines is medically necessary. It covers specific categories such as dental, orthodontic and prosthodontic support while excluding cosmetic procedures or surgery.

See the bill text and see the release.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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— Dairyland Power Cooperative has joined an agreement to help develop a 139-mile transmission line segment between Minnesota and Wisconsin, the La Crosse-based co-op announced.

The MariBell Transmission Project is part of a larger 273-mile transmission line, and crosses six counties in the two states. It’s being developed in partnership with GridLiance Heartland, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Transmission, based in Florida. The project was approved by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator in December, and is expected to come online by 2034.

Pen Porath, executive vice president and CEO of Dairyland, says this effort with GridLiance will benefit “all Midwest energy consumers.”

“A strong interstate transmission connection between Minnesota and Wisconsin will improve the reliability and flexibility of the region’s transmission system, while supporting economic benefits and growth,” Porath said in a statement.

See the release and a website for the project.

— The Utility Action Alliance says it’s launching a six-figure ad campaign urging the PSC to reject We Energies’ proposal for a $2 billion project in southeastern Wisconsin to build new gas-fired power plants.

The national group said its campaign includes radio, digital and billboards. The radio ads are running in Madison, with the digital and billboards statewide. The group says the campaign will run until at least the end of May.

The narrator in the radio spots says the proposed project is “just more of the same, doubling down on Donald Trump’s dirty and expensive fossil fuel agenda, and the results could be devastating for Wisconsin families.”

The utility’s more than $2 billion plan includes a $1.2 billion natural gas plant, $456 million liquified natural gas storage facility in Oak Creek, a natural gas plant in Kenosha and a pipeline. The project would help replace coal units at the Oak Creek power plant. The utility has said the project is needed to meet rising energy demands, particularly with data centers planned for the region, and would reduce carbon emissions compared to the coal-fired plants it would replace.

The radio spot also praises Gov. Tony Evers saying the good news is he’s “committed to making Wisconsin 100% carbon free by 2050” before closing by urging listeners to call the Public Service Commission and urge it to reject the “dirty and expensive gas plants.”

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