Walker Releases New Jobs Numbers and Cuts New Ad

On May 16, 2012, Governor Scott Walker released new jobs numbers; ones that indicate Wisconsin gained jobs in the last year rather than suffering the worst jobs loses in the nation as had been previously reported. The new numbers are based on a different metric, not the metric used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The governor's office has traditionally relied on BLS to measure job performance, but went data shopping when the BLS numbers started ranking Wisconsin's job performance the worst in the nation. The Walker administration released the new numbers the day before the BLS was anticipated to release its April numbers, and indeed the BLS report once again put Wisconsin dead last in the nation a loss of 21,400 between April of 2011 and April of 2012. Wisconsin lost 6,000 jobs in April alone.

Wisconsinites were shell shocked in 2011 by a wide-ranging legislative agenda in their State Capitol that seemed to come out of the blue. Anti-consumer bills, union busting legislation, voter ID, enormous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy along with requirements for "super majority" votes to raise revenue were fast tracked through the legislature.