There are more mixed signals on the Wisconsin jobs scene. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released a report showing Wisconsin with the second-highest number of unemployment claims from mass layoff events in the nation last month. A “mass layoff” is any event affecting at least 50 workers, according to the BLS. Its mass layoff report for November estimated Wisconsin with 90 such events in the month, impacting 9,359 individuals.
“The tilt against manufacturing over the last few months is hitting Wisconsin pretty hard,” says Laura Dresser, a labor economist with the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a UW-Madison think tank.