Jobs in Wisconsin’s public sector took a hit during the pandemic, leaving hundreds of thousands of school, state agencies and emergency responder positions empty. Those vacancies haven’t been re-filled and worse, they continue to decline. The numbers are grim.
Here’s five fast facts about Wisconsin’s Public Sector Jobs
- 📉On the Down Low - In 2021, state and local governments employed less than 277,800 full-time jobs, the fewest relative to the state’s population in at least 20 years and below the national average.
- 🏫Trickle Down - Starting in 2002, state education employment per capita declined 9.9% but stayed put nationally. Local education employees dropped 11.1% per capita but they declined 10.4%.
- 🧑🏫Drop by Drop - Average pay has also dropped, with experts pointing the finger at the pandemic, declining school revenue, rising healthcare costs, declining school enrollment and local property tax caps. So basically everything but the neighbor’s dog.
- 👷♀️Maybe…maybe…maybe - This is, in part, because we have more services at the local level. When crunching those numbers, local employment jobs rank ABOVE state jobs.
- 💸…than a Duck’s Butt - The labor market is tight right now and that makes the chances of filling these jobs even tougher, especially when you consider teachers, for example, are leaving their jobs at a record level.
🔥Bottom line: The outlook is bad here, folks. Both state and local lawmakers need to figure out if they can operate at these numbers, as well as figure out ways to stop the bleeding. If they don’t, expect your tax bill to get even higher.
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