Department of Workforce Development

State’s unemployment drops to 7.8 percent in July

Published: August 19, 2010
Tags: Department of Workforce Development, DWD, jobs, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s unemployment rate improved slightly last month, and seasonally adjusted figures show the state added 6,500 private-sector jobs in July.
According to a report Thursday from the state Department of Workforce Development, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in July. That’s down from 7.9 percent in June.
It’s also a full [...]

Wis. officials sending out unemployment checks

Published: July 23, 2010
Tags: benefits, Department of Workforce Development, DWD, jobs, Roberta Gassman, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin officials are racing to send out unemployment checks following an extension in benefits approved by Congress earlier this week.
Department of Workforce Development Secretary Roberta Gassman said Friday that 8,000 checks were processed Thursday and another 20,000 will be done over the weekend. The department hopes to have checks mailed for [...]

Beloit, Racine have highest unemployment rates in state

Published: July 21, 2010
Tags: Beloit, Department of Workforce Development, DWD, Racine, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — New state statistics show Beloit and Racine have the highest unemployment rate among Wisconsin’s cities, but are better off than last year.
The state Department of Workforce Development reported Wednesday that Beloit leads the state with 16.5 percent unemployment in June. That’s up 0.6 percent from last month, but down 2.2 percent [...]

Wis. unemployment drops to lowest level in 17 months

Published: July 15, 2010
Tags: Department of Workforce Development, DWD, Gassman, unemployment
Comments: 2

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.9 percent in June, its lowest since February 2009.
The state Department of Workforce Development reported Thursday that the seasonally adjusted rate dropped from 8.2 percent in May.
The state rate remains below the national seasonally adjusted average of 9.5 percent.
Department Secretary Roberta Gassman said the state continues [...]

Builders want debarment details from state

Published: June 30, 2010
Tags: ABC, American Subcontractors Association of Wisconsin, Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, Beiriger, bid, debarment, Department of Administration, Department of Workforce Development, DWD, Mark Saunders, Mielke, rule, suspension, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, WisDOT

By Paul Snyder
Industry associations are withholding support for proposed contractor debarment rules until the state can prove it will not unfairly prevent companies from bidding on jobs.
The threat of debarment is a useful tool for the Wisconsin Department of Administration to make sure contractors play by state rules, said John Mielke, vice president of the [...]

You must be reading this at work: Wisconsin metro areas adding jobs

Published: June 23, 2010
Tags: Department of Workforce Development, DWD, Gassman, jobs, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State statistics show all 12 metropolitan areas of Wisconsin added jobs and reported drops in their unemployment rate in May.
According to the Department of Workforce Development, the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis area added 5,700 jobs in the month while the Madison area added 4,500. The 10 others added jobs, too.
Meanwhile, 71 out of [...]

Wisconsin unemployment drops to lowest level in 14 months

Published: June 17, 2010
Tags: Department of Workforce Development, Doyle, DWD, jobs, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent in May, its lowest level in more than a year.
The state Department of Workforce Development released the seasonally adjusted number on Thursday.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said the lower rate reflects the hard work being done to recover from the recession.
The monthly report shows that [...]

Computer crash halts unemployment claims

Published: June 14, 2010
Tags: claims, Department of Workforce Development, Dipko, DWD, unemployment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — If you tried to file an unemployment compensation claim electronically Sunday, you were out of luck.
According to the state Department of Workforce Development, its main computer crashed, keeping the claims system down all day until about 7:30 p.m.
Department spokesman John Dipko said the outage could mean a day’s delay in payments [...]

State adds staff to deal with jobless claim appeals

Published: June 8, 2010
Tags: Department of Workforce Development, Dipko, DWD, unemployment

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The state of Wisconsin is hiring more staff to deal with a backlog of appeals of unemployment insurance claims.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the state Department of Workforce Development will soon hire four or five administrative law judges.
The judges are attorneys who hear appeals from people trying to secure jobless pay or [...]

Industry seeks journeymen, apprentice balance

Published: June 8, 2010
Tags: ABC, AGC, apprentices, Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin, Boullion, Department of Workforce Development, DWD, hiring, Iron Workers Local 383, John Schmitt, journeymen, Local 383, Mielke, Pete Stern, Wisconsin Laborers District Council

By Paul Snyder
Contractors working on state projects should have a choice between hiring apprentices and journeymen, according to construction groups asking the state to ease its employment rules.
“We want to see apprenticeship standards used as encouragement; not a hammer,” said Jim Boullion, government affairs director for the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin.
The AGC, he said, [...]