3:00 November 08, 2004
Metro Milwaukee adds more jobs than any state in Upper Midwest

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By JOEL DRESANG

jdresang@journalsentinel.com

Nov. 4, 2004

Metropolitan Milwaukee added more jobs in the last 12 months than any state in the Upper Midwest, according to new federal data.

The net addition of 21,500 jobs in the four-county Milwaukee area is more than Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota or Ohio added statewide between September 2003 and September 2004, according to preliminary figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The data, released just after a presidential election in which jobs were a key issue, underscores Wisconsin's relative advantage in the Midwest, where all the states but Indiana were considered election battlegrounds.

Economists have credited Wisconsin's comeback to its mix of industries, which tend to make the state one of the earliest in and out of downturns.

"I'm proud that as a state Wisconsin continues to have the best job growth numbers in the Midwest, and that metropolitan areas - in particular the Waukesha and Milwaukee metro areas - are experiencing some of the most significant growth among all metro areas in the Midwest," Gov. Jim Doyle said in a written statement Thursday.

Wisconsin's 11 metropolitan areas accounted for 73% of the 52,900 jobs added statewide in the last year. Of four of the seven Midwest states that had net growth in that time, only Minnesota relied more on employment gains from its urban areas, at 87%. Metropolises fueled 55% of the jobs increase in Illinois in the last year and 6% in Indiana.

At 3.5%, the Sheboygan area had the second-highest annual job growth rate among the 62 metropolitan areas in the seven states. Only the Waterloo-Cedar Rapids area did better, at 3.8%.

The Bloomington, Ill., area was third highest at 3.1%, followed by the Green Bay area (3.2%), the Des Moines area (3%), and metro Milwaukee (2.6%).

From the Nov. 5, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel