(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw an unemployment rate drop in 65 of its 72 counties in March with all 13 metropolitan areas and 30 of the largest 35 cities in the state seeing unemployment drops as well.
That comes as the overall state unemployment rate rose to 3.5% in the month, below the national rate of 4.2%.
The state’s lowest unemployments rates were in Calumet (2.9%), Dane (3.0%), Green (3.2%), Kewaunee (3.2%), Lafayette (3.2%), Ozaukee (3.2%) and Sheboygan (3.2%) counties.
The highest rates were in Iron (7.8%), Burnett (7.7%) and Polk (7.5%) counties with the rest of the counties sitting below 7%.
The overall numbers showed that there were 17,200 less employed in nonfarm jobs in March as opposed to the year before while there were 18,800 less service jobs and 7,700 less government employees in the state with 4,500 less employed in local government, 2,100 less federal employees and 1,100 less employed in state government.
Manufacturing jobs were down 5,200 year over year while there was a 6,900 employee increase in private education and health services.
Fitchburg (2.7%) was the Wisconsin city with the lowest unemployment rate, followed by Madison (2.9%), Sun Prairie (3.1%) and Mequon (3.2%) amongst the states’ 35 largest cities. Racine (6.0%) had the highest rate, followed by Milwaukee (5.3%), Superior (5.2%), Beloit (5.1%) and West Allis (4.7%).
