Wisconsin’s job market is making a strong comeback, a new report shows

More Wisconsinites were working last year than ever before, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which also found that the state’s unemployment rate was lower than the national average as communities continue to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just over 2.9 million people were employed in 2023, an increase from the 2.89 million that were employed in 2019 and a larger jump from the 2.73 million employed in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

Both rural and urban communities around Wisconsin experienced this growth, and it stretched across a wide range of industries, from transportation and warehousing to arts, entertainment and recreation. Wages have also risen, increasing an average of 21.1% per employee between 2019 and 2023, slightly outpacing inflation.

One of the state’s fastest-growing industries was construction, with more than 12,000 construction jobs added between 2019 and 2023, according to the report. This included 6,600 workers employed by specialty trade contractors. The report states that part of the boom in construction is due to communities rapidly developing more housing throughout Wisconsin.

Recent infrastructure investments made under the provisions of legislation signed by President Joe Biden have resulted in more construction jobs, according to Chris Mambu Rasch, the executive director of Building Advantage, a group that promotes the use of union labor in southeastern Wisconsin and facilitates relations between labor and management.

“The work right now is quite strong. Our folks, our members, our contractor members and our union members are very busy, and so we’re excited about that,” Rasch said. He said the additional construction jobs are the “fruits of the labor” of the Biden administration in passing legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act.

Statewide, those investments have provided funding to fix roads and bridges, expand broadband, and replace lead pipes. The federal aid is also supporting an “energy transformation” in Wisconsin, Rasch said, with more investments in renewable and green energy, such as solar panels or electric buses, and mega projects such as the new Microsoft data center at the site originally allocated to the Taiwanese technology company Foxconn in Mount Pleasant or the new We Energies natural gas plant in Oak Creek.

All of those projects are big undertakings that will require more construction workers, Rasch said. For example, to meet the White House’s goal of replacing 65,000 lead pipes in Wisconsin in 10 years, he said, 18 will need to be removed every day of the year, with a crew of construction workers working on each one.

“That’s just an extraordinary amount of work,” Rasch said.

The construction workforce is expected to keep growing over the next decade, too, Rasch said, because the infrastructure investments are all largely large-scale and long-term projects for what he called the “transformation of how we create, produce, store and transfer energy.

“That is a significant change that’s going to reap benefits for the construction industry for the next decade and for a generation of workers, really,” he said.

Rural Lafayette County in southwest Wisconsin had the fastest-growing workforce in the state between 2019 and 2023, with the number of jobs growing by more than 15%. Most of the job growth has been in manufacturing, agriculture and small business, as well as in construction and trade jobs that are growing because of new development projects, according to Allison Taylor, the county’s economic development and tourism director.

“Lafayette County’s success largely stems from a strong sense of community and collaboration,” Taylor said. She said local efforts like the Launch Lafayette County grant that promote and support local businesses, as well as state and federal funding, have made a difference.

“But ultimately,” she said, “it’s the people here who drive the growth. Their hard work and dedication to the region make all the difference.”

An increase in the number of jobs has a ripple effect on communities, both Rasch and Taylor said.

Rasch said he thinks the opportunities for employment will attract more people to move to Wisconsin, which will in turn have a positive effect on local economies.

“Construction workers make — and particularly union construction workers — make great wages. They have great benefits with a pension plan and a health plan. So these are careers that are being supported. And with those folks doing the work, they have families and make investments in our community. These are local workers who live here, work here, play here,” he said.

Lafayette County’s job growth has led to more local spending, too, Taylor said.

“There’s been a rise in new businesses opening, more community events, and overall infrastructure improvements. This growth, plus our rural charm, helps strengthen our local economy and makes the county a more vibrant and attractive place to live and work,” she said.

Not all sectors and counties are seeing the same growth, however, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s report. While most sectors have fully rebounded, some industries, such as manufacturing, are still struggling, and some counties still had lower employment rates in 2023 than in 2019.

To help bridge those gaps, Taylor said, there should be more support that’s targeted at the areas and sectors that are struggling and more partnerships with municipalities, businesses and educational institutions to increase specialized training. Rasch said that the state will need to address its lagging population numbers to meet the demands of the added jobs over the next decade.