Month: October 2017

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Ray Allen today announced the launch of the first phase of WisConomy.com, the state’s new online source for economic and labor market information. The site features powerful, state-of-the-art tools that deliver labor market data in new, engaging and understandable ways.

WisConomy streamlines access to labor market data and makes information easy to access and analyze. The site was created for everyone, from students and business owners to analysts and economic developers, and offers the ability to:

• Easily find data through keyword or program title searches, reducing reliance on terms that are highly technical and less well-known.
• Customize and download data in a variety of formats.
• Quickly convert data to charts and tables that can be embedded in multi-media presentations and shared through a variety of platforms.
• Explore a searchable database for basic information about Wisconsin employers, such as company location and employment size range.

WisConomy.com helps businesses research economic and labor data and make informed employment decisions. Tools enable employers to:

• Create personalized reports to learn and share information about the local job market.
• Examine wages and long-term projections by industry and occupation.
• Help determine location and expansion plans.

DWD technical experts developed WisConomy as an in-house solution to replace WORKnet, a website launched by the agency in 2005. DWD will continue to make WORKnet available for a limited time, and WisConomy.com training opportunities will be scheduled in the coming weeks. DWD plans to launch future WisConomy enhancements, allowing the public to use login credentials to customize, save and automatically update desired data.

Access Wisconsin’s new economic and labor market information tools today at WisConomy.com

Wisconsin taxes — once among the nation’s highest — have fallen to just barely below the national average, highlighting the effects of a slow shift that has played out here over a generation.

In Wisconsin in 2014, the state and local taxes paid by residents added up to 10.5% of their income, compared with the 10.6% that state and local taxes took up of Americans’ incomes across the country. The figures come from 2014 U.S. Census data, the most recent available and the first to account for more than $500 million in tax cuts made in the spring of that year by Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature.

After peaking in 1973 at 14.7% of income, the tax bite in the state has been steadily declining as a share of how much money people here earn, according to figures from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Wisconsin is now 22nd highest in the country when measuring taxes against income. Because high-tax states such as New York can skew the national average upward, it’s possible for a state to fall below the national average in taxes but still rank higher than 25th.

State and local taxes in 2014 added up to $4,661 per person in Wisconsin, $214 below the national average of $4,875.