Article here. How is Wisconsin doing, employment-wise — especially in terms of manufacturing jobs that Senator Johnson has refused to try to bring to Wisconsin?
Figure 1: Wisconsin manufacturing employment (black) and US manufacturing employment (tan), both sa, in logarithms, 2020M02=0. The NBER has defined peak-to-trough recession dates as shaded. Source: BLS via FRED, NBER and author’s calculations.
While domestic manufacturing is up half a percentage point (in terms of logs), Wisconsin is down 0.8 percentage points.
What about private employment in general? There, the performance gap is greater (0.7 ppt versus -0.016 ppt).
Figure 2: Wisconsin private non-farm wage employment (black) and US private non-farm wage employment (tan), both sa, in logs, 2020M02=0. The NBER has defined peak-to-trough recession dates as shaded. Source: BLS via FRED, NBER and author’s calculations.
Strangely, in 2018, Senator Johnson was an enthusiastic supporter of the Foxconn misadventure – from the horse’s mouth, see here.
Therefore, I point out that Senator Johnson is misrepresenting the situation in Wisconsin.