Milwaukee Jobs

JSOnline's DayWatch reports:

Metro area March jobless rate at 5.4%
The Milwaukee area remained high on the list of metropolitan areas losing jobs in the last 12 months, according to preliminary data released this morning by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.The four-county area showed a net loss of 7,700 jobs since March 2005, fifth-highest behind the New Orleans area, the Gulfport, Miss., area, the Detroit area and Rochester, N.Y.

Some labor market analysts have said they suspect technical quirks, including seasonal benchmarking of data, for contradictory signs of the Milwaukee area's economic health. Despite the net loss of jobs, the Milwaukee area's unemployment rate for March was 5.4%, down from 5.5% the year before.

On a percentage basis, the Milwaukee area had a net loss of 0.9% of the jobs it had in March 2005.

Gee, if only companies wanted to move into Milwaukee and provide jobs to the area's jobless...

Gwen? Bob?