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>> Reporting from Presque
le in Dane County. I'm

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Murv Seymour for here now.
>> Monday was Labor Day,

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and while most families
used the holiday as a

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vacation, it's a good time
to check in on the state of

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the average worker. And for
that, we turn to Laura

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Dresser, associate director
of UW Madison's High Road

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Strategy Center and the
author of the State of

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Working Wisconsin Report.
anks for being here.

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>> I'm so glad to be here.
>> Thank you. So your most

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recent report says the
median wage has reached an

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all time high of $25 an
hour. But obviously,

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federal policies are
some chaos. As you

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say in the most recent jobs
report shows that it's not

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looking good.
s right. It's

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a very there was there's
been a very strong recovery

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from the pandemic shutdowns
five years ago. But we were

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really beginning to see,
especially in those monthly

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job numbers, troubling
signs about the economy,

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because I think of the
federal uncertainty,

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tariffs and immigration
policies.

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>> So the numbers show that
June was revised down to

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nothing and slight, very
low anemic job reports

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since then. Right.
>> Yeah. The 2025 job

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growth month over month is
is and revised down, like

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you said, to a negative in
June a week, a week, July.

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Those numbers are running
less than half the 2024

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jobs production numbers. So
it's a substantial cooling,

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really troubling sign in
the labor market, both at

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the national level and most
of that showing up in

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sin, too.
>> So for a few months this

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year, it felt like we
couldn't figure out what

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tariffs were actually in
place or just being

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threatened. They were
on pause or hold.

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Can we relate some of the
owdowns to tariffs? Are

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those already being felt?
>> I mean, there's two

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aspects to what what what's
going on with tariffs right

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now. There's a lot of
uncertainty. Like you said,

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it's hard to tell. And I
think it's hard for

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businesses, domestic
es and

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international businesses to
plan when the regime is not

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clear when what is our
tariff policy going to be

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still emerging? Chaotic
giant leaps. So partly the

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uncertainty cools off.
Business investment

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decisions just puts people
back on their heels. And

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the the At producer levels.
And then also when the

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tariffs land and they're
beginning to land, they

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increase prices. They do.
They're a tax on imported

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goods and that means
imported and domestic goods

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in those market prices will
go up. And so I think

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there's real concerns I
think very some signs that

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tariffs are beginning to
hit but more like concern

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and the uncertainty really
dominating the news right

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now.
>> So the Pew Research

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Center recently estimated
the number of immigrants in

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the workforce went down by
1.2 million nationally in

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just the first six months
of the year. What what

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impact does that have on
the workforce? We saw

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unemployment tick up as
well.

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we
see a cooling labor market,

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but we also know that in
especially in specific

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industries and some very
important industries in

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Wisconsin, agriculture,
hotels, food service,

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ants are a big
construction. Immigrants

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are a big share of the
workforce. And the fact

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that they are often staying
home or nervous or not

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coming to the country again.
This tightens the ability

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of businesses to grow, and
is another kind of wet

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blanket on the economy.
>> We've only got a few

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seconds left, but
historically, fewer workers

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typically means rising
wages, competition from.

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Will that happen this time?
>> It it it may I mean

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there's a lot to see what
what washes out. We've got

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that kind of impact
although there's also. So

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ah we'll just have to
wait and see. There's a lot

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going on price changes
because of tariffs, labor

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impact, demand because of
the immigration systems.

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And what's going on in the
broader economy will

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probably dominate.
>> And finally, just sorry

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the last few seconds. Union
membership in Wisconsin is

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dropping at ten. The
Wisconsin Supreme Court is

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going to take a look at it.
Will we see a change if

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they overturn act ten?
>> Changes will be slow. I

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think it unemployment. I'm
sorry. Unionization rates

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fell in half from 2011 to
2024. In the state of

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Wisconsin, they won't
double in a day or two to

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get back to where we were,
or even to get back to the

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national average will take
years. But act ten and what

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we call what is so-called
right to work, you know,

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the the policy around
private sector unionization

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would have to go to get
would have to go to get