Chart created by RandomNonviolence (*).
(*) Who also accomplished putting up with my continual tweak suggestions.
Last week and this week, Giles Goat Boy presented The Image That Made Walker Supporters’ Heads Explode. This is the chart that'll make the heads explode of those who need the same message in graphical form.
The sources (listed on the image) are on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website;
National series and Wisconsin series, the total nonfarm payroll number from the Current Employment Survey.
Walker said he would create 250,000 jobs.
The precise numbers are: in January 2011 when Walker took office, the nation had 130,456,000 jobs. By March of 2012 that had increased to 132,821,000, a climb of 1.81%. In January 2011 when Walker took office, Wisconsin had 2,744,800 jobs. If we had followed the national trend since then, we would now be at 2,794,600 jobs. Instead we are at 2,730,600, sixty-four thousand jobs fewer. For perspective:
64,000 jobs would have been more than enough for all of the unemployed in Milwaukee, Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha Counties combined.
If 64,000 Wisconsinites had been able to leave the unemployment rolls, the statewide rate would be at a boom-time 4.7%.
We know that this jobs deficit is due to Walker, because he has repeatedly claimed ownership of the job numbers:
March 9th, 2011:
The number one goal of my Administration is to get government out of the way so that the private sector can create 250,000 jobs by 2015. Adding over 10,000 private sector jobs in January shows that Wisconsin is on the right track toward fulfilling that important goal.
April 19th, 2011, in
claiming credit for jobs created under Doyle (see
the diary on the subject by FlotsamInaWebSea):
By providing these funds, we are bringing quality jobs to Wisconsin
And most infamously, on
July 28th, 2011, just in time for the Senate recall elections and despite
having been warned that the figures were questionable 3 days before they came out:
“Wisconsin is on the right track,” said Governor Scott Walker [...] The state has netted over 39,000 new private sector jobs since the Governor called a special session to open Wisconsin for business.
The preliminary June 2011 private jobs figure he and his party was shouting from the rooftops was a one-month
gain of 12,900. That has since been
revised to a big fat zero.
A jobs recovery has begun in this country, and Walker has taken credit for Wisconsin being left out of it.
More on Walker's lies about jobs (and the state budget) in my previous diary; and donation link for the recall.