That number is 33,521.
From his recent press release:
A quarterly report released today by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) shows Wisconsin created 23,321 jobs in 2011. Wisconsin employers have now put more than 33,521 people back to work so far under Governor Walker’s leadership.
The 23,321 number comes from a special and conveniently-timed news release that's been dissected by others at Daily Kos already. The nutshell is that Walker used government to release the QWEC survey 6 weeks early for political purposes and now says that we should pay attention to that rather than the CES survey of the number of jobs that he was touting through much of 2011 as the gospel truth.
This news release is peppered with criticism of the CES survey such as:
The year-over-year change in actual job counts as reported by some 160,000 Wisconsin employers shows a net gain of 23,321 jobs from December 2010 through December 2011. Meanwhile, the BLS’ Current Employment Statistics data series estimated a net loss of 33,900 jobs over the year. That puts the CES monthly estimates off from actual, employer-reported job counts by 57,221 jobs.
And:
“The BLS’ monthly job estimates are volatile and not in line with the economic growth we see throughout the state,” Secretary Newson said. “And, because workforce data is important to job creators as they contemplate key decisions for their businesses, Wisconsin employers – and job seekers – have the most to lose when volatile data is represented as a reliable indicator.”
So we are clearly not to trust CES data at all (and should forget all those times that Walker said we should).
But Walker is claiming 33,521 more jobs for Wisconsin since he started, not 23,321. Where did the other 10,200 come from? Why, the private sector employment numbers for January through April from the CES survey of course.
Think magically™.
But here's where it manages to get even more interesting: the taxpayer-funded CES figures for January-April year were only released by the taxpayer-funded DWD to the public today, but somehow found their way into a Walker campaign press release yesterday.
Why is the Walker campaign getting taxpayer-funded data that isn't yet public?
Donation links:
Tom Barrett via Daily Kos Wisconsin ActBlue (make sure you scroll down and distribute between Barrett and Daily Kos as you see fit).
Mahlon Mitchell who is up against Lieutenant-Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.
Lori Compas who is up against Senator Scott Fitzgerald in SD13.
John Lehman who is up against Senator Van Wanggaard in SD21.
Kristen Dexter who is up against Senator Terry Moulton in SD23.
Donna Seidel who is up against Jerry Petrowski in SD29 after incumbent Pam Galloway resigned.
If you can't decide, there's the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
If you need the above links for your own diary or comment, here's the code to copy and paste:
<p class="divider-doodle"></p>
Donation links:
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/page/dailykoswisconsin">Tom Barrett via Daily Kos Wisconsin ActBlue</a> (make sure you scroll down and distribute between Barrett and Daily Kos as you see fit).
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/29356">Mahlon Mitchell</a> who is up against Lieutenant-Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser/29087">Lori Compas</a> who is up against Senator Scott Fitzgerald in SD13.
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser/28834">John Lehman</a> who is up against Senator Van Wanggaard in SD21.
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser/28833">Kristen Dexter</a> who is up against Senator Terry Moulton in SD23.
<a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraiser/28835">Donna Seidel</a> who is up against Jerry Petrowski in SD29 after incumbent Pam Galloway resigned.
If you can't decide, there's the <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/26821">Democratic Party of Wisconsin</a>.