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Daily Bread for 5.4.25: Economics of Wisconsin’s Demographics

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see a mix of clouds and sun with a high of 64. Sunrise is 5:44 and sunset is 7:59, for 14 hours, 15 minutes of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter with 50.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2007, Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by the 2007 Greensburg tornado, a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.

Greensburg, KS May 16, 2007. By Greg Henshall/FEMA – U.S. National Archives, Public Domain, Link.

At Wisconsin Watch, Natalie Yahr interviews University of Wisconsin researcher Matt Kures on Wisconsin’s aging workforce. Two key questions from that interview appear below:

And how about when it comes to long-standing trends in Wisconsin’s labor market or demographics? Are there numbers you like to bring up that you think people don’t tend to know?

If you look at the working-age population declining from 2020 to 2030, and then kind of leveling off from 2030 to 2040, we’re just not going to have strong growth in the number of individuals who are working age in the state. That’s mostly true across the state, although there are some counties that will be projected to grow, like Dane and Eau Claire. 

And then also, the combination of individuals of retirement age or nearing retirement age that are going to either leave the labor force or change the types of work they’re doing. If we look at the manufacturing sector, for instance, we have almost 131,000 individuals in that industry who are aged 55 or older, or almost 28% of that industry. So in those large employment sectors in the state, how do we think about replacing the workforce or augmenting the workforce going forward due to retirements or just shifting abilities due to the aging population?

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How are the challenges or opportunities different in different parts of the state, say in urban areas versus more rural areas?

Certainly many of the non-metro areas do have an older population and will continue to have an older population going forward, so they will most likely face some of the bigger challenges in terms of some of the population shifts by age group. In some of those areas too, you have some of the bigger challenges in developing housing … to try and attract a new labor force. So those challenges are a bit twofold.

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Which Wisconsin industries rely more on older workers?

Wisconsin’s working-age population is declining, leaving industries with more workers nearing retirement age. This U.S. Census Bureau data shows which industries in the state most relied on workers ages 55 and older in early 2024.

See Natalie Yahr, Wisconsin’s workforce is aging. How can communities and employers prepare for the future?, Wisconsin Watch, April 25, 2025.

The demographic challenges, in industries where they are present, are a refutation and rebuke to those who say ‘let’s boost manufacturing through tariffs’: it will be more difficult and take more time — if it should work at all — than advocates of tariffs glibly contend. The pro-tariff crowd might as well say let’s build time machines out of DeLoreans.


May the 4th be with you:

“Star Wars” fans around the world are celebrating the space epic this weekend through an unofficial, fan-made holiday. A sly nod to one of the films’ most popular catchphrases, May the 4th is known as Star Wars Day and has been embraced by businesses and communities over the years. (AP Video: Haven Daley) Read more here: https://bit.ly/42WHZbo

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