Walker’s fundamental claim was that he would be a jobs creator, with a horde of operatives, development men, business insiders, and political cronies insisting that billions in state funds would somehow trickle down to create jobs.
In his fundamental promise, Walker was a failure.
Shawn Johnson reports Walker Never Reached 250,000 Jobs Created (‘Finalized statistics show just 233,101 jobs created in 8 years, trailing 33 states in growth’):
New “gold standard” job numbers released Wednesday show Wisconsin created a total of 233,101 private sector jobs during the eight years Scott Walker was governor, falling nearly 17,000 jobs short of the 250,000 job benchmark Walker promised for his first four-year term.
The numbers also show that over Walker’s eight years in office, private sector jobs grew in Wisconsin by 10.3 percent, which ranked 34th among all states and trailed the national growth rate of 17.1 percent.
The numbers released Wednesday come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages,” or the QCEW. As the name suggests, they’re a detailed count of nearly all employers, which is why they take several months to collect.
While typically only followed by economists, the numbers were watched more closely during Walker’s tenure because of his explicit promise to help the private sector create 250,000 jobs in his first term.
“I want every cabinet secretary to have branded across their head, ‘250,000 jobs,’” Walker told the Dairy Business Association in December 2010, shortly before he took office.
Wisconsin added roughly 129,000 private sector jobs in Walker’s first term, falling short of his goal, and the numbers released Wednesday show the state never hit the 250,000 job benchmark while he was governor.
(Emphasis added.)
Even in twice the time he promised, and with billions in Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and other state funds, Walker fell short of the job creation of most states and the national average.
Goodbye, goodbye forever.