State adds manufacturing, construction jobs in first quarter

Wisconsin’s manufacturing and construction sector added about 2,500 jobs in March, continuing to gain momentum from January and February gains, according to the March report by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.
However, the state of manufacturing remains cloudy. Wisconsin still has 72,800 fewer jobs in manufacturing than it did at the beginning of the Great Recession. The loss in manufacturing jobs accounts for roughly 40 percent of the jobs lost in Wisconsin during the recession, COWS says.
The state picked up about 500 new construction jobs between February and March, following the addition of 3,000 new jobs in January and February, COWS said. However, the state’s construction job market has shrunk more than 20 percent since December 2007.