WisBusiness: State’s job scene improvement typical for April

By WisBusiness Staff

A state labor economist says the uptick in jobs the state saw in April was pretty typical for this time of year.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped 0.6 percentage points in April to 8.8 percent. Though down from 9.4 percent in March, that’s still 4.6 percentage points higher than the rate for April 2008.

The national rate for April was 8.6 percent.

The April survey of households found 17,300 more employed than in March.

State labor economist Eric Grasso said Wisconsin typically sees an uptick in employment between March and April as warm-weather industries begin to hire people in anticipation of the summer months.

From March to April, total Wisconsin non-farm jobs increased by an estimated 11,500 to 2,735,000, compared to 8,700 jobs lost in the February to March report.

See the DWD release