Ludeman -- whose community learned Wednesday that Briggs & Stratton plans to eliminate 530 jobs in the area -- said reductions in manufacturing hold back Wisconsin's economy as well.
"Wisconsin continues to be pretty heavy in manufacturing, and manufacturing is getting hit really, really bad," Ludeman said. Wisconsin leads the nation in percentage of jobs in manufacturing and had an adjusted unemployment rate of 8.9% in May, the highest since September 1983.
"Wisconsin continues to be hammered, and I think it would behoove all of us to recognize that this is severe and it remains severe," Rosen added. "People like to look for glimmers of hope. There are not many on the horizon. It seems to me that both the jobs number and the dramatic increases in foreclosures are ominous signs."
Staying jobless longer
The report Thursday also showed that 29% of the nation's 14.7 million unemployed jobseekers have been without work for 27 weeks or more, the highest percentage in data going back to 1948.
That helps explain the lack of turnover at the support and networking groups that Dennis Cherne visits as president of 40+ of Southeastern Wisconsin, which offers free Wednesday night job forums and weekly self-help groups.
Among the mid-career professionals 40+ caters to, Cherne is counting more individuals who lost jobs in the 2001 recession and have been among the first workers let go in the latest rounds of reductions.
But the groups also are experiencing a slower influx of newly unemployed, Cherne said, and compared with earlier in the year, more jobs are being found, although often on limited terms of three months to a year.
"It isn't jump up and down for joy, but it's moving upward," Cherne said of the job market.
Todd Nilson ordered 1,200 name badges Thursday for the Milwaukee JobCamp2 employment expo scheduled for July 9 at Potawatomi Casino Bingo. As recruiting director for SPR Cos., in Milwaukee and Chicago, Nilson actually is seeing more interest in and hiring of information technology professionals, but as one of the volunteers organizing JobCamp2, he also is aware of the unmet needs of many jobseekers.
"I'm seeing an uptick in business. Things are not awesome, but they're getting slowly better," Nilson said. "Locally, still, so many people are hurting, and there just seem to be some dichotomies in the market now. I think people want to feel more upbeat about things, but they're still pretty bad out there."
Nilson said he doesn't know how much deeper or longer the recession will go. But he is committed to keep doing what he can, one job at a time.
"I tend not to put a heck of a lot of trust in economists because, you know, a lot of them didn't see this coming," Nilson said.
"So I'm never quite sure how much stock to put into the doom and gloom."
6.5 million Number of jobs lost since the start of the recession
29% of the nation's 14.7 million unemployed jobseekers have been without work for 27 weeks or more, the highest percentage since 1948
223 points Drop in the Dow, which closed the week at 8280.74, the worst drop since April 20.
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