State unemployment rate goes down due to ‘data distortion’
November 19, 2021 8:36AM CST
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is looking better, if only on paper.
A revised report to update a “data distortion” discovered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in Michigan dropped Wisconsin’s unemployment rate for September by half a percentage point to 3.4%. It had been stuck at 3.9% for several months.
The DWD reported the unemployment rate for October at 3.2%, the lowest the state has seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020.
State Department of Workforce Development officials say the unemployment drop over the last two months is a result of adjusted data and cannot be attributed to any one economic event.
That includes the end of enhanced federal unemployment benefits in early September.
