Wisconsin\u2019s median wage hit a record high of $25.01 per hour in 2024, and the state reached a record of 3.06 million jobs in July, the report noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But job growth so far in 2025 has been \u201cweak,\u201d averaging 1,400 jobs per month, the report said. The \u201ceconomic softening\u201d in Wisconsin mirrors what\u2019s happening in the national economy, with many analysts \u201cwarning of a slow down or even a recession,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of 2025, for both Wisconsin and the United States, is that we see the growth really cooling off<\/a>, the production of jobs is down,\u201d said Laura Dresser, a labor economist and associate director of the High Road Strategy Center. \u201cUnemployment rates are pretty stable \u2026 and there\u2019s not a strong drift upwards in those yet. But there are troubling signs.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2021, Wisconsin has had more job openings than people on unemployment, according to state data<\/a>. But the gap between the number of openings and the number of people looking for jobs has been narrowing.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November 2022, there were more than three jobs open for every one person on unemployment. This April, the most recent month with available data, there were 1.26 open jobs for every one person on unemployment.<\/p>\n Wisconsin\u2019s job growth since the COVID-19 pandemic has also been weaker than job growth nationally, the new report noted. Wisconsin has 2 percent more jobs than before the pandemic, while the United States has 5 percent more jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cWisconsin\u2019s job growth has been robust, but less than half the national rate,\u201d Dresser said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, the report says federal policies around tariffs, taxes and the social safety net could make life more expensive for the working class.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, the report notes the Trump administration\u2019s approach to international trade has brought \u201ctariffs to levels not seen in nearly 100 years.\u201d That could cost the average household $2,400 per year in tariff-induced price increases, according to estimates from the Yale Budget Lab.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTariffs are, of course, just a tax on imports,\u201d Dresser said. \u201cDefinitionally, they\u2019re a tax and consumers will pay that tax, and it will hit consumers\u2019 pocketbooks.\u201d<\/p>\n The report also says the recent budget reconciliation bill that was signed into law will deliver $67,000 in annual tax cuts to Wisconsin\u2019s richest 1 percent and just $70 to the poorest one-fifth of Wisconsinites. The law also threatens to result in 54,000 Wisconsinites losing Medicaid coverage and 18,000 losing Affordable Care Act coverage, the report says, citing data from health policy nonprofit KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of this is going on in this really dramatic departure in this federal budget, really delivering to billionaires at the cost of basic supports for life \u2014 health care, food<\/a>, access to higher ed<\/a> \u2014 that working people need,\u201d Dresser said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration has argued that its tariffs are meant to revitalize American manufacturing<\/a>, and it has championed policies in the tax bill aimed at reducing taxes on tips and overtime pay<\/a>. In a presidential proclamation issued Thursday to mark Labor Day<\/a>, President Donald Trump said the administration is \u201crestoring the dignity of labor\u201d and putting workers first.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are making it easier to buy American and hire American, breathing new life into our manufacturing cities, and securing fair trade deals that protect our jobs and reward our productivity,\u201d the proclamation reads. \u201cWe are amassing hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenue and ensuring that every product of American craftsmanship is appreciated for its true value in overseas markets.\u201d<\/p>\n The state report also raises concerns about the reliability of federal economic data following Trump\u2019s firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer last month after a weak jobs report. The report said the firing \u201csends a signal that the president will only accept data that confirms his narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharon Block is executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School and former member of the National Labor Relations Board during the Obama administration. She called the firing \u201can unprecedented attack\u201d on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just a million ways that people rely on those numbers to make good decisions about keeping the economy working for as many people as possible,\u201d Block said. \u201cI think a lot of credibility and a lot of confidence in those numbers have already been lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond federal policy, the state report also notes that despite a new record high for overall median wages in Wisconsin, disparities persist between races and genders.\u00a0<\/p>\n The median wage for men was $27.05 in 2024 while the median wage for women was $22.98. White men and white women had the highest median wages at $28.54 and $23.66, respectively. Hispanic men and Hispanic women had the lowest median wages at $18.56 and $17.57, respectively.<\/p>\n Dresser said raising the state\u2019s minimum wage from $7.25 would help address those disparities by raising the wage floor for all workers.<\/p>\n Likewise, Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization President Peter Rickman issued a statement about the report, calling for state lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle to raise the minimum wage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats and Republicans alike tell us that they want to represent the working class,\u201d Rickman stated. \u201cNow is their time to show us by introducing and passing comprehensive living wage legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2025, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wisconsin has a record-high number of jobs and median wage, but there are signs that the economy is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-120793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AP25092798375726-scaled.jpg\")
President Donald Trump waves after an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo<\/p>\n