Wisconsin’s unemployment rate jumped from 3.1% in March to 14.1% in April, an 11-point increase that was tied for the 12
th largest change in the country.
Ohio saw the same size shift as Wisconsin, going from 5.8% unemployment to 16.8%.
The biggest shift in the country was in Nevada, which already had the highest unemployment rate at 6.9% in March and jumped to 28.2% in April. Hawaii was also hit hard, with unemployment jumping from 2.4% to 22.3%.
Wisconsin’s Midwestern neighbors saw a mixed performance relative to the rest of the country. Michigan had the third largest unemployment rate jump, going from 4.3% to 22.7%. Indiana was the fifth hardest hit, increasing from 3% to 16.9%, and Illinois saw the ninth largest jump with a shift from 4.2% to 16.4%.
On the other hand, Minnesota fared much better, tying for the fifth smallest increase, and Iowa had the 14
th smallest. Those states still did see 5.2-point and 6.9-point increases in their unemployment rates.
Overall, Wisconsin went from having the 14
th lowest unemployment rate in the country to the bottom half at 29
th.
Wisconsin’s private sector employment dropped by nearly 386,000 jobs in April, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Workforce Development.
The April report was the first monthly jobs data to show the impact of the coronavirus on the labor market because of the timing of surveys used to collect the data.
Get more news and insight in the April 27 issue of BizTimes Milwaukee. Subscribe to get updates in your inbox here.
