Now that Walker has passed right to work (for less) legislation and is about to devastate the state with the worst budget ever, he might want to get a bigger pencil with a really big eraser for another rewrite as he is about to break his own record for layoffs in one year:
By the end of last week Wisconsin employers had already notified the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) of 3,543 planned layoffs, putting the state on pace to eclipse 10,000 in 2015.
That would be the highest number of layoffs announced in Wisconsin since 2011, when Gov. Scott Walker first took office. The total number of layoff notifications topped 9,000 that year.
By comparison, employers notified the state of 6,511 layoffs in 2012, 7,029 in 2013 and just 6,186 layoffs in 2014. The state records the notifications on the date when they are informed about the layoffs, which can then sometimes take effect over the course of a year or several years afterwards.
Many of the 2015 layoffs will impact hundreds of employees here in South Central Wisconsin. Last week alone, 93 employees at the Eaton Corp. plant in Watertown and 119 workers at McCain Foods in Fort Atkinson were told they will be out of a job by the end of the year.
"I just think our economic climate is not very healthy here," said Rep. Deb Kolste (D-Janesville), who sits on the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development.
Rep. Kolste said both workers and employers are feeling the pinch of the state's economic woes.
"We haven't created an environment where there's been robust wage growth and we are a consumer nation and if people aren't spending money - then we don't have the job growth," said Rep. Kolste.
And just think - he wants to repeat this level of "success" nationally.
