Wisconsin (WQOW) - A new jobs report begs the question: Good news or bad news? It depends on who you ask.
The July report shows more jobs were added across the country, but more Americans are unable to find work. In July, 163,000 jobs were added, much better than what economists had predicted. At the same time, the unemployment rate went up from 8.2% to 8.3%. "It's another hammer blow to the struggling middle-class families of America because the president has not had policies that put American families back to work. I do, I'll put them in place and get America working again," said Mitt Romney, (R) presidential candidate. "Here's the thing, we're not going to get there, we're not going to get to where we need to be if we go back to the policies that helped to create this mess in the first place," said President Obama.
"While President Obama believes that the economy is ‘doing fine' and his policies are ‘working,' Wisconsinites disagree. President Obama has the worst record on job creation than any president in modern history, and it shows here in Wisconsin," said Ben Sparks, from Romney's Wisconsin campaign. In a release, Sparks pointed to a jobs report that shows Wisconsin lost 12,000 jobs in June.
June was also the month the recall election was held in Wisconsin. Governor Walker said the following about a month before the recall when talking about businesses, "I've said for some time -- the biggest single concern they (businesses) have about adding jobs is what's going to happen on June 5th." Two days after the recall, the governor said this during a stop in the Chippewa Valley, "Employers say they felt good about adding jobs, but they were waiting until the recall election. I can understand --- just not knowing what was going to happen. Now that they know, now that that's done there is incredible optimism. People are pumped up."
This week, WQOW News 18 followed up with Governor Walker's office, asking what's happened with respect to job creation since the end of the recall two months ago.
"The extent to which uncertainty in the market has been reduced due to the recall being over is a good thing. However, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling regarding ObamaCare and uncertainty about its future, depending on the November election, is still hanging over the heads of small business owners and job creators in Wisconsin," said Cullen Werwie, the governor's press secretary.
The governor's office also said it could be months before we get an accurate picture of post-recall job creation. His office pointed to the quarterly jobs report (Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages), the one that surveys almost all of the state's employers. The results of the most recent survey won't be available for months.
WQOW News 18 also asked if the governor's policies on job creation are working and the president's policies are failing in Wisconsin -- or vice versa -- how can someone tell the difference when reading through a jobs report? No one from the governor's office or the president's Wisconsin campaign office answered that question. Mitt Romney's camp said this: "Gov. Walker's policies have done a great job of reforming government, but there are federal policies out of any governor's control."
