Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has claimed to have a "laser focus" on jobs. He has failed spectacularly, as you can see in the graph above comparing employment change in six Midwestern states, with Wisconsin lagging dramatically behind its neighbors.
While governors don't have total control over everything in their states' economies, when other states in your region of the country post jobs gains and your state struggles to break even in the private sector at the same time as you are laying off public sector workers, leading to an overall loss ... well, that's on you. The Economic Policy Institute's Doug Hall points out why laying off public sector workers would hurt other workers, too:
Because public sector workers are a vital part of every state economy—firefighters, teachers, police officers and department of health officials all buy clothing, groceries, and movie-tickets just like private sector workers—laying them off hurts us all by reducing economic activity, which holds back the recovery.
Walker used jobs to justify his assaults on public workers and his efforts to hand over any possible advantage to big business. But a year of data gives us the big picture: If he was "laser focused" on jobs, apparently that laser was set to "destroy."
Please, contribute $6 to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to recall Scott Walker.