MON AM News: Employment growth projected to continue slowing this year; State officials announce $27.8M to boost internet access

September 16, 2024

— State employment growth is projected to continue slowing this year before flattening from 2025 to 2027 while personal income is set to grow, according to a new Department of Revenue economic forecast.

After posting employment growth of 2.8% in 2022, Wisconsin had 1.4% growth last year and is expected to see 0.8% growth this year, the report shows. That follows the trend for national employment growth, which has fallen from 4.3% in 2022 to 2.3% in 2023 and 1.4% this year.

“This trajectory is expected to continue until 2025, helping to bring the inflation rate down to 2%,” report authors wrote, adding the forecast projects flat growth for the next several years both in Wisconsin and nationwide.

As of last year, all of the state’s employment growth came from the private sector as government jobs were below their level from 2020. Private employment in Wisconsin rose 1.3% last year led by leisure and hospitality with 4.7% growth, construction with 3.5% and education and health services, 2.4%.

“These same sectors are expected to continue driving most of the growth, while the current two largest sectors, manufacturing and trade, transportation, and utilities, are expected to lose jobs in the coming years,” authors wrote.

Meanwhile, nominal personal income in Wisconsin is expected to grow 4.3% this year and next year, driven in large part by growth in wages and salaries and supplemental pay. Adjusted for inflation, real personal income is projected to have grown 0.6% last year after declining 3.3% in 2022. DOR says real personal income is expected to grow 1.7% this year as inflation keeps slowing, before rising 2.5% next year and 2.3% in 2026.

The report notes inflation is projected to “slow sustainably” as labor markets ease, reaching the 2% target rate by 2027.

“The Fed will start cutting interest rates well before that,” report authors wrote. “The August S&P Global forecast includes the first rate cut in December, but data released after the forecast points to a likely rate cut in September.”

In the second quarter of this year, state unemployment was 3%, staying below the U.S. rate of 4%. Wisconsin’s rate is expected to peak at 3.6% in 2027 as the national rate hits 4.6%.

See the report.

— More than 80,000 Wisconsin households will get a loaned internet-capable device or free Wi-Fi service thanks to a $27.8 million round of state funding.

Gov. Tony Evers and the state Public Service Commission on Friday announced awards from the state’s Digital Connectivity and Navigators Program for 11 projects aimed at improving internet access in Wisconsin.

These projects will provide 52,409 households with loaned devices such as computers, laptops, and tablets and 33,682 households with free Wi-Fi. This will be provided through installations at eligible multi-dwelling locations including apartment buildings, condominiums and mobile home parks. The program also provides digital navigation services through guides that will help recipients use the technology for work, education and more.

“Having access to reliable, high-speed internet is a necessity for how we do work, how we learn, how we see our doctors, how we stay connected to our communities — and I am proud that no administration in state history has done more to expand access to high-speed internet than we have,” Evers said in a statement on the new funding.

About 7% of Wisconsin residents didn’t have a computer in their home in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey findings cited in the announcement.

More than half of the $27.8 million in funding — nearly $17 million — is going to United Way of Wisconsin, which will distribute 33,000 devices to low-income households in the state. The project includes nine navigators offering help to program recipients as well as nonprofit partners using the technology for health, education and employment.

Other awards range from $200,000 to about $2.4 million.

See the release and the list of funded projects.

— UW-Stout is building out a new “arena” for its growing e-sports program, funded with $1 million from the university’s Foundation and Alumni Association.

The university recently announced plans for the new space, which will be located in a 2,000-square-foot area on the first floor of its University Library. It has been used as a computer lab, but renovations will add the Blue Devils e-sports team branding, special effects lighting, an area for spectators and a production room for broadcasting matches online.

About three-fourths of the budget will go toward the renovation while the rest will be used for new computers, monitors, broadcasting equipment, and specialized tables and chairs designed for e-sports. It will have space for up to 34 computer stations, which is about three times as many as the university’s existing space for the team.

“A state-of-the-art broadcasting system will be the best in Wisconsin and one of the best in the nation,” e-sports coach Aaron Froelich Froelich said in a statement. “This will be the future for Stout esports for many years. We can continue to grow into this space, and it will be a highlight for recruiting.”

Construction on the new e-sports space is slated to begin in March and finish before the 2025 fall semester.

The announcement notes UW-Stout’s e-sports program had a “banner year” in 2023-2024, landing a state championship win and qualifying for two national tournaments. The team last spring won the Wisconsin Valorant Summit LAN championship — featuring a popular first-person shooter game — beating out UW-Madison, according to the release.

UW-Stout this year will transition to the new Wisconsin Esports Conference, which includes teams from public and private universities and colleges. Its e-sports program currently has about 50 players, some of which are nationally ranked.

E-sports represent a growing market around the world, wth global revenue projected to hit $4.3 billion this year, according to data analytics site Statista. It’s expected to have an annual growth rate of nearly 7% from now to 2029, which would put it at $5.9 billion market volume within five years.

“The university is really invested in esports, and with this Foundation gift we’re headed in the right direction,” Froelich said.

See the release.

— Wisconsin is set to receive about 7,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for adults who are uninsured or underinsured to be available through a statewide network of about 120 providers.

That’s according to Dr. Stephanie Schauer, the state’s immunization program manager, who spoke during a recent Department of Health Services online news conference. DHS last week announced vaccines for COVID-19, the flu and RSV are arriving in the state and called on state residents to get vaccinated as fall approaches.

Schauer noted that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Bridge Access Program ended last month, the federal agency has made these COVID-19 vaccine doses available to states for distribution. This program provided free COVID-19 vaccines to adults without health insurance or those whose insurance doesn’t cover all vaccination costs.

Schauer acknowledged 7,000 doses doesn’t come close to the total number of state residents without health insurance, based on a recent estimate. The number of Wisconsinites with no health insurance for all of 2021 exceeded 170,000, a DHS report from last year shows. But at the same time, the number of doses coming this fall is more than double the number of people in the state who got a dose of COVID-19 vaccine through the year-long Bridge Access Program, Schauer said.

“We do encourage folks to make a plan to get vaccinated sooner rather than later,” she said.

Tom Haupt, a respiratory disease epidemiologist and Wisconsin’s influenza surveillance coordinator, said the 2024-2025 respiratory disease season is expected to be milder than last year based on CDC projections. The past season was described as “moderate to severe” with about 4,000 flu-related hospitalizations, Haupt said.

“This coming year, they’re thinking that it’s going to be a better year, it’s going to be more of a mild year,” he said. “That’s based on many different aspects as well, one being the number of vaccinations that they’re projecting to get from Wisconsin citizens is correct.”

Residents’ vaccination choices will influence that outlook, Haupt noted. Last year, just 35% of state residents got a flu vaccine, while about 19% got a COVID-19 vaccine.

Schauer said “we certainly have a long ways to go in making sure that we are well-protected.”

Meanwhile, health officials are keeping an eye on potential mutations to the COVID-19 virus or the flu virus, which could also have an impact.

Watch the video.

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