When Gov. Scott Walker was campaigning for office he pledged to create 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin by the end of his first term. If he survives a recall effort Walker will need to spend the next three years creating more than 450,000 new jobs if he intends to keep that campaign promise.

According to a study released this week by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, "Wisconsin now has an enormous jobs deficit of 205,200 — that’s the difference between the number of jobs Wisconsin has and the number it needs to regain its pre-recession employment. That number includes the 140,700 jobs Wisconsin lost, plus the 64,500 additional jobs it needs to keep up with the 2.2 percent growth in population since the recession began."

During Walker's first six months in office the state was moving in the right direction gaining 38,800 jobs, however during this second half of his first year the state's lost 27,600.

The unemployment rate has dropped in the state from 7.8 percent to 7.7 percent. COWS speculates that this is due to "discouraged workers falling out of the labor force."

The study comes less than a week after new numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed "Wisconsin was the only state with a statistically significant decline in employment, dropping from 2,757,200 jobs in September to 2,747,500 jobs in October."

Even when presented with these numbers the Governor continues to present a rosy picture of the job prospects in the state. e's able to do that because there have been new jobs created in Wisconsin, but for every announcement of new jobs there tends to be an opposing story about jobs being lost. Just last week Walker touted 250 new jobs being created over the next five years at Blue7 Solutions in Bayfield. However, that news was preceded by announcements that Famous Footwear would be closing a distribution center costing the state 144 jobs.

In areas where there is growth Walker is being helped by the Obama Administrations health care reform legislation. According to Bloomberg News Marshfield Clinic hired 250 employees this year thanks in part to the reforms. Nationally, the health care industry has been one of the leading sectors in jobs creation, "Health care employment continued to expand in October 2011 (+12,000), following a gain of 45,000 in September. Offices of physicians added 8,000 jobs in October. Over the past 12 months, health care has added 313,000 jobs."

Jesse Russell

Co-Editor

Jesse was born and raised in Connecticut, began blogging in 1997, and moved to Madison in 2003. In 2005, he co-founded dane101 along with Kristian Knutson and Shane Wealti. In addition to helping nearly a dozen contributors run this website he's helped launch various events in the city including What's Your Damage?!, the MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, the Fire Ball Masquerade, Dane101's Freakin' Halloweekend, and more.