The Sconi

Across Wisconsin, businesses are slowly rebounding from shutdowns and other restrictions in place over the last 16 months to thwart the COVID-19 pandemic, and the state is faring well when compared to other states. 

According to a Chicago Tribune report, Wisconsin ranks 19th in a list by Credible, with unemployment at 3.9% in April, near pre-pandemic levels. The Milwaukee Independent reported that Gov. Tony Evers noted tough decisions made over the past year have put Wisconsin in a position to excel in the wake of the pandemic. 

“Wisconsin is among the best in the country for both getting shots in arms and our low unemployment rate,” Evers told the Independent. “My top priority all along has been making sure our economy can recover from the pandemic, and because we made those difficult decisions a year ago, we’re able to maintain our investments that will continue helping our state’s recovery from K-12 to higher education to the Treatment Alternatives and Diversion Program and supporting Wisconsin children and families.”

Wisconsin is a part of the Rust Belt and Georgia is in the Deep South, but the states are on a similar recovery trajectory, according to Credible’s data cited in the Tribune report. Georgia ranks 25th in the Credible list. However, the report points out that the recovery hinges on continued vaccinations and how well states like Wisconsin and Georgia can keep COVID-19 and its variants at bay. In an editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal, Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, noted that the state faces unique challenges, with urban areas outpacing national vaccination averages and rural areas lagging behind.

“The recovery is under way and could extend to much of rural America unless too many people fail to make the right choice about getting vaccinated,” Still wrote in the editorial. “Main Street Wisconsin is an engaging place to work, live and relax for people who are looking to escape some of the trials of urban life. Don’t discourage them by putting up a billboard, ‘Welcome to the Land of the Unvaccinated.’”

Vaccinations could be helping both Wisconsin and Georgia. According to the Tribune report, unemployment in Wisconsin in April 2021 was 3.9%, down 6.3% from 10.2% at the same time last year. By comparison, the report indicated that Georgia’s unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in April 2021, down from 7.6% over the previous year. The shadow of COVID-19 cannot be dismissed as Romina Boccia and Adam Michel of the conservative Heritage Foundation wrote that policies enacted in the wake of the pandemic had never been seen before. 

“Intentionally shutting down economic activity deemed non-essential by state governors to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus has had dramatic effects on the livelihoods of millions of Americans,” they wrote in the Heritage Foundation report. “As the public health threat abates, and shutdown orders and stay-at-home measures are lifted, people will return to work and drive the economic recovery, as long as bad policy does not get in their way.”

Wisconsin and Georgia, two different in population size, have seen identical increases in existing jobs over the last year. The Tribune report noted that Wisconsin had 2,857,300 existing jobs as of April 2021, a 10.3% increase from the same time last year. In the South, Georgia had 4,473,600 existing jobs in April 2021, an increase of 10.3% year-over-year. 

Real GDP growth also has been similar in the states according to the Tribune report, with Wisconsin’s real GDP at $348.2 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020, an increase of 10.9% from the second quarter of that year. In Georgia, real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2020 was $637.2 billion, a 9.7% increase from the second quarter of that year. 

The states have had to travel slightly different roads over the last year when it comes to unemployment. In Wisconsin, unemployment reached a high of 14.8% in April 2020, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Georgia, unemployment reached a pandemic high of 12.5% during the same period.