Wisconsin ranked among the top four states with the highest job losses percentage-wise according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Employment decreased in 43 states and increased in seven states according to the report. The District of Columbia, New York, Kentucky and Wisconsin suffered the largest job losses in the nation.
Dennis Winters, Wisconsin Department of Workforce development chief of the Office of Economic Advisors, said Wisconsin's large manufacturing industry took a large hit during the recession.
""We are one of the major manufacturing states in the upper Midwest that has been beaten up pretty hard by this last recession. We are still feeling the effects of that,"" he said.
Carolyn Heinrich, director of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, said the closure of the GM plant in Janesville had a domino effect on job loss in Wisconsin.
""The multiplier effects of a big loss like that can continue over time … there are other employers that have continued to close [down],"" she said.
Winters also attributed the unemployment rate to the weak housing market, decline in the automotive sector and a loss of trade.
Despite the high percentage of jobs lost in Wisconsin, unemployment dropped to 7.7 percent in September, down from 8.4 percent in August.
""A lower unemployment rate is a good thing, we have had that for a few months in a row now,"" Winters said.
According to a report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, unemployment in Wisconsin is steady but is expected to increase in the next few months. The report said jobs are declining in the construction sector but increasing slightly in manufacturing.
The COWS report indicated the percentage of jobs lost during the current recession has now exceeded the percentage lost during the recession in the 1980s.
