Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has been attacked from the right and the left on several issues, but challenges over the past 15 months have stalled progress on her ambitious list of goals for the community.
MITCHELL SCHMIDT
Wisconsinâs return to near pre-pandemic unemployment levels has brought with it the reemergence of one of the biggest challenges facing some of the stateâs largest industries â a workforce shortage.
The need for workers in multiple sectors of the economy has Republicans and the stateâs largest business lobby calling on the state to end its participation in enhanced federal pandemic unemployment benefits, which they say creates a disincentive to work.
Liberals point to long-term structural changes as an opportunity to provide higher wages, better benefits, more skills-based training and adequate child care offerings â a need that was drastically amplified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic â as necessary to get more Wisconsinites into the workforce.
PolitiFact s ruling: True
Here s why: When the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its latest job numbers, the Jan. 8, 2021 release brought a jaw-dropping number to light – from November to December the U.S. economy lost 140,000 jobs.
Then came another jaw-dropper: As a group, only women lost jobs.
Then came this claim, from Wisconsin Treasurer Sarah Godlewski. On Jan. 9, 2021, she tweeted a link to a CNN article about the job losses among women with this comment: This headline is hiding something from you. It wasn’t all women that lost jobs, it was mostly Black and Latina women. In fact, white women gained employment. Any response we have to this pandemic and economy has to also address structural inequality.