State jobless rate 'eases' to 7.8 percent

July was a good month for Wisconsin jobless figures.

The Department of Workforce Development announced today that Wisconsin added 6,500 private-sector jobs in July. Permanent jobs. Counting new seasonal jobs, the total was 16,400.

That dropped the state's unemployment rate to 7.8 percent, a tenth of a percent better than in June. The national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent. The state's workforce fares better than that in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, according to the latest stats.

“The Wisconsin economy created thousands of private-sector jobs in July, showing we are headed in the right direction but still have much more work to do,” Secretary Roberta Gassman said. “We need to keep doing everything we can to keep Wisconsin’s economy growing and providing more job opportunities.”

The full report is HERE.