Milwaukee County Unemployment at 9.9 Percent
City of Milwaukee unemployment at 11.1 percent.
On March 19th, the downtown Milwaukee Punch Bowl Social laid off 91 employees. Photo by Jennifer Rick.
The unemployment rate in July was 9.9 percent in Milwaukee County and 11.1 percent in the City of Milwaukee.
These numbers are the preliminary unemployment figures released by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and are based upon the latest jobs report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
These recent unemployment numbers show both the city and the county as a whole have seen employment improve. In June, the unemployment rate for the county was 11.5 percent, and 12.8 percent in the city.
The county had the fifth highest unemployment rate of all 72 counties in the state. The city had the highest unemployment rate of the state’s 33 largest cities.
The number of new unemployment claims that come in on a weekly basis continue to go down, however, they do so very slowly. Last week, there were 1,006,000 new claims in the U.S., according to the Department of Labor, and 13,227 in Wisconsin during the seven days since the last time Urban Milwaukee reported unemployment figures, according to numbers from DWD.
More than 600,000 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) last week.
Three weeks ago the number of new claims dipped below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic began, but it’s been back above one million for the past two weeks.
The country has never seen unemployment claims of this magnitude. For approximately five straight months, there have been more than 1 million new unemployment claims a week. As noted, one week traditional claims were below 1 million, but when added to claims for PUA, claims were over 1 million. Before the pandemic, the highest recorded number of unemployment claims in a single week was 695,000 in 1982.
As of Aug. 8, there are more than 27 million people across the country relying on some sort of unemployment benefit, according to the Department of Labor.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- MHD Release: Milwaukee Health Department Launches COVID-19 Wastewater Testing Dashboard - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Jan 23rd, 2024
- Milwaukee County Announces New Policies Related to COVID-19 Pandemic - County Executive David Crowley - May 9th, 2023
- DHS Details End of Emergency COVID-19 Response - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Apr 26th, 2023
- Milwaukee Health Department Announces Upcoming Changes to COVID-19 Services - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Mar 17th, 2023
- Fitzgerald Applauds Passage of COVID-19 Origin Act - U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald - Mar 10th, 2023
- DHS Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Program - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Feb 10th, 2023
- MKE County: COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rising - Graham Kilmer - Jan 16th, 2023
- Not Enough Getting Bivalent Booster Shots, State Health Officials Warn - Gaby Vinick - Dec 26th, 2022
- Nearly All Wisconsinites Age 6 Months and Older Now Eligible for Updated COVID-19 Vaccine - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Dec 15th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Bi-Weekly COVID-19 Update - City of Milwaukee Health Department - Dec 9th, 2022
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here
