Jobs gains are small but widespread

By JOEL DRESANG
jdresang@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 29, 2006

All 12 of Wisconsin's metropolitan areas and 55 of the 72 counties posted lower unemployment rates last month than they had in February 2005, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development reported Wednesday.

Unemployment in the four-county Milwaukee area hit 5.6% in February, down from 5.7% the year before, as the labor market seems to be settling into a groove after more dramatic improvements just after the 2001 recession.

"Just as recoveries run their course, you can't keep making the big gains over and over," said Bret Mayborne, economic research director at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

Statewide, over the last 12 months, the unemployment rate - the portion of the labor force looking but unable to find work - moved to 5.7% from 5.9%.

Preliminary data based on household surveys suggest that among the 12 metro areas, only Janesville (5.9%) and Racine (6.7%) exceeded the state rate.

Estimates from payroll data show the state gaining a net increase of almost 42,000 jobs in the last year. The Milwaukee area also was the only metropolis to have a net loss of jobs from the year before, falling 7,500 jobs.

Jeff Sachse, a state labor economist based in Pewaukee, pointed to dips in retail employment and professional and business services as the chief culprits in the Milwaukee area job loss.

"Everything else looks to be fairly stable," Sachse said.

Retailers dropped 4,200 positions from February 2005, a decline that Sachse said might be a factor of the timing of when stores took holiday workers off their payrolls.

A slight move away from temporary workers could account for some of the 3,600 fewer business service jobs since February 2005. As employers feel more secure about the work force levels they can maintain, they're likely to look more for permanent hires, Mayborne said.

"The temporary market has certainly shifted," said Joel Buffington, vice president at Elite Human Capital Group, a professional recruiting and staffing agency in Brookfield.

From when the firm started three years ago, more jobseekers are not unemployed but looking for better positions, Buffington said.

"The market is still pretty vibrant in terms of employees looking for work," Buffington said. And though he doesn't see employers getting any less choosy about whom they hire, he suggested that jobseekers can be more demanding.

"Today, to find somebody who's good - who has the qualifications and doesn't have any of the personality flaws - those people are hard to find," Buffington said.