About

For more than two decades, COWS’ State of Working Wisconsin and Monthly Job Watch have presented the workers’ perspective on the economy in the state:

• what’s going on with work and jobs, who is winning in this economy, and who is being left out;
• where is disparity growing;
• what’s happening to the economic chasm separating Black and white workers in the state.

In March, the Wisconsin economy moved into uncharted territory. We cannot simply use data from 2019 to answer these questions. The COVID-19 economic crisis has upended the economy; the State of Working Wisconsin and Monthly Job Watch will change too.

We will still focus on how working people doing in this state. We use data sources that speak to the current crises, continue to shine a spotlight on the brutal Black-white disparities that define this state, seek out new sources to present the emerging issues of desperate material need, and provide worker profiles to crystallize the human costs of this crisis.