Monday was Labor Day, and while most
families use the holiday as a
vacation, it's a good time to check
in on the state of the average
worker. And for that, we turn to
Laura Dresser, Associate Director of
UW-Madison's High Road Strategy
Center, and the author of The State
of Working Wisconsin Report.
Thanks for being here.
I'm so glad to be here, thank you.
So your most recent report says the
median wage has reached an all time
high of $25 an hour,
but obviously federal policies
are creating some chaos as you say
in the most recent jobs report shows
that it's not looking good
sometimes. Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
It's a very there was there's been
a very strong recovery from the
pandemic shutdowns
five years ago, but we were
really beginning to see, especially
in those monthly job numbers,
troubling signs about the economy
because I think of the federal
uncertainty tariffs and
immigration policies.
So the numbers show that June
was revised down to nothing,
and very low anemic job reports
since then, right?
Yeah, the 2025 job
growth month over month is and
revised down like you said to a
negative in June,
a week, a week July.
Those numbers are running
less than half the 2024
jobs production numbers.
So this is substantial cooling,
a really troubling sign
in the labor market, both at the
national level and most of that
showing up in Wisconsin too.
So for a few months this year, it
felt like we couldn't figure out
what tariffs were actually in place
or just being threatened.
They were always on pause or hold.
Can we relate some of the slowdowns
to tariffs?
Are those already being felt?
I mean, there's two aspects to
what's going on with tariffs right
now. There's a lot of uncertainty.
Like you said, it's hard to tell.
And I think it's for businesses,
domestic businesses and
international businesses to plan
when the regime is not clear,
when what is our tariff policy gonna
be? Still emerging, chaotic,
giant leaps.
So, partly the uncertainty cools
off business investment
decisions, puts people back on
their heels at producer
levels. And then also when
the tariffs land and they're
beginning to land, they increase
prices. They do.
They're a tax on imported goods.
And that means imported and
the domestic goods in those markets,
the prices will go up.
And so I think there's real
concerns, I think some
signs the tariffs are beginning to
hit, but more like.
Concern and the uncertainty really
dominating the news right now
So the Pew Research Center recently
estimated the number of immigrants
in the workforce went down by 1.2
million nationally in just the
first six months of the year.
What impact does that have on
the workforce? We saw unemployment
tick up as well.
Yeah, I think what we see
a cooling labor market,
but we also know that especially
in specific industries and some very
important industries in Wisconsin,
agriculture, hotels,
food service.
Immigrants are a big construction.
Immigants are a share of the
workforce, and the fact that they
are often staying home or
nervous or not
coming to the country, again,
this tightens the ability of
businesses to grow and is another
kind of wet blanket on the economy.
We've only got a few seconds left,
but historically, fewer workers
typically means rising wages,
competition from, will that happen
this time?
It may, I mean, there's
a lot to see what washes out.
We've got that kind of impact,
although there's also, so
yeah, we'll just have to wait and
see. There's a a lot going on.
Price changes because of tariffs.
Labor impact demand because of
the immigration systems and
what's going on in the broader
economy will probably dominate.
And finally, just sorry over the
last few seconds, union membership
in Wisconsin's dropping Act 10,
the Wisconsin Supreme Court's gonna
take a look at it.
Will we see a change if they
overturn Act 10?
These changes will be slow.
I think it,
unemployed, I'm sorry.
Unionization rates fell in half from
2011 to 2024 in the
state of Wisconsin.
They won't double in
a day or two.
To get back to where we were, or
even to get back to the national
average will take years.
But Act 10 and what we
call, what is so-called right to
work, you know, the policy
around private sector unionization
would have to go to get really large
gains in the State as well.
All right, Laura Dresser, thank you
so much for your time. Thanks for
having me.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our website
at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
That is our program for tonight.
I'm Zach Schultz, Federica will be
back next week.
Have a great weekend.