Afternoon News Briefs: Unemployment remains at 6.9% despite 4,000 added jobs

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Wisconsin added about four thousand private sector jobs last month, while the state’s unemployment rate stayed the same as in January, 6.9%. Workforce Development Secretary Reggie Newson announced the new figures. He said the seasonally adjusted jobless rate continues to be the lowest since December of 2008. Almost 18,000 private sector jobs have been added in the first two months of the year. The state announced a revised increase for January of 13,800 jobs, almost 2,000 fewer than the original number announced a month ago. About 4300 government jobs were added last month, mostly in state government agencies. Construction, professional services, and health care led the increase in private sector jobs. Manufacturing gained an estimated 600 jobs while retail and hospitality jobs dropped last month. Once again, state officials pointed out that the initial monthly job numbers are not precise, because they represent quick surveys of just 4% of employers.

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Rescuers recovered a man’s body in the Milwaukee River today. And while police have not identified the body, it was found close to where 28 year old Tom Hecht disappeared 12 days ago. Authorities said Hecht’s family responded to the recovery scene and they were planning to go to the medical examiner’s office to confirm the man’s identity. A person was walking along the Milwaukee River in the downtown area, and saw the body just after 11 this morning. Hecht and his friends were out for a night of drinking when he disappeared and veered off by himself late in the evening of March 10th.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has announced four more campaign stops in Wisconsin this weekend. It was announced last week that the former US senator from Pennsylvania would speak at a summit in Milwaukee on Saturday, put on by the Americans for Prosperity. Today, Santorum’s campaign said he would appear at 3 pm rally on Saturday at Lakeshore Lanes in Sheboygan. And he’ll make a six pm appearance at the Ravine in Bellevue, near Green Bay. On Sunday, Santorum will visit the Ledgeview Bowling Lanes in Fond du Lac at 2:30, and Racine’s Roma Club at six pm. Meanwhile, GOP Mitt Romney’s wife campaigned in Middleton and Milwaukee today, saying her husband had the right skills to tackle the nation’s economy. State Senate Republican Alberta Darling, who co-chairs the Wisconsin Romney campaign, said the candidate would make several appearances in the Badger State next week. The state’s presidential primary is a week from next Tuesday.

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A long time Milwaukee radio voice now wants to speak up for people as their state representative. John Jagler of Watertown announced his candidacy this morning. He told his old employer, WTMJ Radio, that he’ll run as a Republican in the newly created 37th District. Jagler left the radio station just over a year ago to become Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald’s spokesman at the State Capitol. Jagler said he was at the speaker’s side when the Assembly passed its budget reforms and the law to virtually eliminate public union bargaining. And Jagler said he would run on that, saying it was quote, “putting fiscal sanity back in Wisconsin.” Jagler said he complained on the air for years that nothing gets done in politics but this year, he said state lawmakers made a real difference, and he wants to quote, “continue that momentum but the protect the changes we’ve made.”

Tags: wisconsin news, news, government