Since late 2024, Wisconsin’s job market has gone flat. From 2020 to 2024, Wisconsin’s economy added jobs steadily and reached record highs. But since January 2025, the state has actually lost jobs. With 3,042,900 jobs in July, Wisconsin has fewer jobs than in November 2024 when we reached a record high of 3,051,000 jobs. Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt.
At just 3.3%, unemployment in the state remains low. Even so, it is drifting upward from the unprecedented 2.6% low in early 2023. More concerning, Black unemployment is growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups. In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank. But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly. The gap between Black and white unemployment rates in Wisconsin – where Black residents are 2.9 times more likely to be unemployed – marks Wisconsin’s return to having one of the largest racial disparities in the nation.
Relatively low unemployment rates are good news for workers, providing workers with higher bargaining power. Workers can leave their jobs for better opportunities, or they can use the credible threat of leaving to secure improvements in the jobs they hold. Over the last year, both the decline in jobs and increasing racial disparity in unemployment suggest the labor market is cooling, and the bargaining power of workers is declining.
Wisconsin continues to have a relatively high labor force participation rate – 64.3% of working-age people in Wisconsin are in the labor market compared to the national rate of 62.4%. Wisconsin’s engagement with work is above national levels for both women and men. Wisconsin’s high engagement with work is a strength, but our relative advantage has declined over the past decade.
National job growth has been sluggish, and Wisconsin has lost jobs. Prices also continue to rise with inflation at 2.5% in July. The strength of the economy over the post-COVID-19 lockdown period is waning. Continuing uncertainty in economic policy, divestment by the federal government, and disruptions in energy markets are reducing the options and power of working people.
Wisconsin had 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is fewer jobs than in November 2024 when the Wisconsin job market reached its all-time high. Job growth has sputtered ever since, drifting below the 2024 peak.
J1 shows the trajectory of job recovery for Wisconsin and the nation. Wisconsin’s job growth has lagged the national rate since September 2021. The national economy reached the pre-pandemic jobs threshold before Wisconsin did and continues to grow more rapidly. In July 2026, the nation had 4% more jobs than it did before the pandemic shutdowns (in February 2020). Wisconsin added just under 2% to the labor market during the same period.
Weakness in Wisconsin’s labor market is clear in J2. Considering the period from February of 2020 to July of 2026, Wisconsin’s job market grew by just 1.5%. Nationally, jobs grew 4.3%—nearly three times Wisconsin’s pace. Overall national stagnation and Wisconsin’s relative disadvantage in jobs are clear in the second period on J2. Nationally, since January of 2025, the labor market has just barely grown. In Wisconsin, the job market has slightly contracted.
Wisconsin’s strong construction growth and relative weakness in nearly all other sectors are evident in J3.
Wisconsin’s strongest industries stand out in J3. Only Wisconsin’s construction and leisure and hospitality industries have grown faster than the national rate. Wisconsin’s construction sector is especially strong. Since February 2020, the construction industry has grown by over 20%, adding jobs at twice the national rate. Over the same period, our leisure and hospitality industry grew slightly (an increase in jobs of 1.6%, while the national industry barely grew at all).
In all other sectors, Wisconsin’s growth rates lag the national rates. Weak Wisconsin job growth is especially clear in education and health services where Wisconsin added just 7% while jobs in that sector grew by 14% nationally, twice as fast. The national pace of growth is stronger across three other important industries: trade, transportation, and utilities (Wisconsin up just 0.6% compared to 3.5% growth nationally); financial activities (Wisconsin up 0.8% compared to jobs up 2.5% nationally), and professional and business services (Wisconsin up 3.1% compared to national 4.8%). In government and state and local government, Wisconsin is losing jobs, while those sectors are growing nationally.
The trend in Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector is especially disturbing. In July 2026, Wisconsin had 4% fewer manufacturing jobs than it did before the pandemic shutdowns (February 2020). U.S. manufacturing lost 1% of its jobs over the same period. Wisconsin is losing manufacturing jobs and losing them much more rapidly than the national decline.
On “Liberation Day” in April 2025, tariffs were announced with the intent to revitalize the nation’s manufacturing sector. The trends in manufacturing since then provide no evidence of a manufacturing renaissance. In part, the tariffs have been volatile and unpredictable due to shifting administrative policy priorities and court cases against various tariffs. The federal tariff policy has changed more than 50 times. This unpredictability dampens economic growth as businesses struggle to determine what future prices and market access will look like.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in February. U.S. retailers reported receiving more than $5 billion in refunds from those tariffs. As recently reported in Forbes: “despite studies showing that consumers bore the brunt of the initial tariff costs, companies are still largely keeping the windfalls for themselves.” The tariff policy has raised prices for consumers with little discernible impact on manufacturing jobs.
We remain skeptical of the longer-term prospects of tariffs rebuilding Wisconsin’s manufacturing base. The Economic Policy Institute takes on the question below.
Can high and broad-based tariffs fix the U.S. trade deficit or rebuild manufacturing employment?
No, mostly because high and broad-based tariffs will also reduce exports along with imports, and this will leave the balance of trade mostly unchanged. Exports fall when tariffs are introduced for a number of reasons. The first is that many U.S. exports use imports as intermediate inputs to final goods produced in the United States. Making these inputs more expensive with tariffs will boost the price of these U.S. exports and make them less competitive in global markets. Second, trading partners are highly likely to retaliate to U.S. tariffs with tariffs of their own, making exports more expensive in international markets—which we’ve seen on “Made in America” goods from Boeing airplanes to Kentucky bourbon. And finally, tariffs will put upward pressure on the value of the U.S. dollar in global markets, which will make our exports more expensive and will increase the attractiveness of imports to U.S. customers—primary causes of U.S. trade deficits and manufacturing job losses.
From EPI, Tariffs: Everything You Need to Know but Were Afraid to Ask
Wisconsin’s 3.3% unemployment rate is low but has been drifting upward slowly since 2023. With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise.
If unemployment climbs further, workers will lose leverage. Workers feel more secure seeking better pay and working conditions when they know opportunity is abundant. As unemployment rises slowly, workers may begin to feel less secure as they seek better pay, schedules, and benefits.
Disparity in Unemployment by Race and Geography
Racial disparities in Wisconsin’s unemployment are substantial, with Black and Brown workers much more likely to be unemployed than white workers in the state. The disparity between Black and white workers has been extreme, and we have documented the high level of disparity, especially in unemployment, in previous editions of The State of Working Wisconsin. (See Race in the Heartland for a summary of Wisconsin’s extreme racial disparity.)
Disparity in unemployment is evident in J5, which provides estimates of unemployment rates for racial and ethnic categories in the first three months of 2026 (Q1 2026). In Wisconsin, the white unemployment rate of 2.3% is the lowest, while the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rate (2.9%) is slightly higher. Black unemployment – 7.2% – is nearly three times the white rate. For Hispanics, the unemployment rate of 4.1% is also substantially higher than the white rate.
The Black-white disparity has risen dramatically over the last year and now puts us among the highest disparities in the nation. With very low unemployment in 2023, the disparity shrank in the state. It is disturbing to see this resurgence in Black-white disparity in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin disparity in Q1 2026 was the highest Black-white disparity in the nation.
The increasing Black-white unemployment gap is apparent in J6. The white unemployment rate did not rise from 2024 to 2025 in Wisconsin. Rates for Hispanics and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were roughly steady as well. Even as rates of unemployment were steady for other groups, Black unemployment surged over that period, rising from 5.9% to 6.8%.
Wisconsinites are Committed to Work
Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate is consistently and substantially higher than the national level.
Wisconsin’s commitment to work is evident in the share of working-age people in the labor force, the “labor force participation rate.” J8 compares labor force participation in the U.S. and Wisconsin from 1979 to 2025. Wisconsinites have consistently shown a stronger attachment to work, with the state’s 2025 labor force participation rate at 64.3% compared to the national rate of 62.4%.
Women in Wisconsin Are Especially Committed to Work.
Over the last 40 years, men’s labor force participation has been declining while women’s participation rose substantially from 1979-1999 and then drifted down in recent years.
J9 shows that while Wisconsin reflects those national trends, workers in the state – both men and women – have historically shown a greater connection to work. In 2025, 68% of Wisconsin men participated in the labor force (which matched the national 68% rate).
Wisconsin women’s labor force participation is consistently above national rates of participation: 61% of Wisconsin women worked in 2025, compared to 57% of women nationally. While Wisconsinites are committed to work, our advantage relative to national rates of work has been shrinking.
