How Many Jobs Has Walker's WEDC Created?

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Impacted' Vs. 'Actual' Jobs

In October 2011 the WEDC governing board chaired by Walker approved an operations plan that set the agency a goal of creating or retaining 50,000 jobs in Fiscal Year 2012. The number was bold, but at 50,000 a year, WEDC would be on track to creating a robust number of jobs as Walker stood for re-election in 2014.

WEDC's board is required to set performance goals for each of its many economic development programs and to report to the Legislature "expected" vs. "actual" results. At the end of 2012, when WEDC was required to issue its first report documenting how many of the 50,000 jobs it had created, WEDC reported 23,759 jobs "impacted" in FY 2012. This new term combines "expected" jobs and "retained" jobs. It allows WEDC to avoid reporting "actual" jobs.

The Center for Media and Democracy spoke to subsidy expert Greg LeRoy at the national nonprofit research group Good Jobs First about the term "impacted." "I am not aware of any other state that uses the term impacted in this way. It is a vague and not very meaningful measure," said LeRoy.

Nowhere in its 2012 annual report does WEDC say how many jobs were actually created that year, but its official database documents only 1,044 "actual" jobs reported by companies that year. (Note: For 2012 and 2013, CMD excluded jobs that were reported to be created before financial aid was received from WEDC.)

At the end of 2013, WEDC told the Legislature and the public it had "impacted" 37,313 jobs. No actuals were included in the report to the Legislature, but its official database includes documentation for 4,796 "actual" jobs.

To create those jobs over a two-year period, some $203 million in taxpayer money went out the door in grants, loans and bonding authority.

So there you have it. The number of new jobs WEDC can credibly document is not 250,000; it is not 50,000; it is not 37,000. Walker's official jobs database can document only 5,840 "actual" jobs reported to be created by firms for FY 2012 and FY 2013. Note that these are jobs created through the efforts of WEDC, and the numbers are separate from the state's job numbers reported monthly and quarterly by the federal government.

How Many Jobs Has Walker's WEDC Created? | The Progressive

So, he's got nothing. Really.