The Department of Workforce Development announced Thursday six Wisconsin cities saw an increase to double-digit unemployment rates in January.
According to the DWD statement, the unemployment rate in Janesville grew from 5.6 percent in 2008 to 13.1 in January, while Beloit ranked highest with a rate of 15.1 percent unemployment.
Madison had one of the lowest rankings, with an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent during January.
""Such a high fraction of [Madison's] employment is related to state government and the university, which tends to be less volatile than the private sector,"" said Stephen Malpezzi, UW-Madison professor of real estate and urban land economics.
Among counties, Dane County ranked lowest with an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, up from 3.2 percent last year. The overall unemployment rate in Wisconsin is 7.6 percent.
""Every indicator we have is that right now the economy is still on the way down, and I think an optimistic scenario would be that we begin to turn up again maybe this summer. That's not a forecast, that's … the best we can hope for,"" Malpezzi said.
Malpezzi said he thinks the recently signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was poorly designed, but it will still help stimulate the economy to a certain extent.
