EARN in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Network publications

• The State of Working Wisconsin 2020

  • September 3, 2020
  • COWS
  • COWS Staff

  A NEW REPORT FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE ERA For more than two decades, we’ve released The State of Working Wisconsin. This year, we’ve released a new digital report to meet the reality of the COVID-19 crisis. Explore below for profiles of workers, monthly updates of economic data indicators, analysis from experts, and more.

  COVID19 State of Working X

• Race in the Heartland: Equity, Opportunity, and Public Policy in the Midwest

  • October 10, 2019
  • Iowa Policy Project
  • Colin Gordon

  A half-century removed from the high-tide of the civil rights movement, progress on racial equity has slowed or stalled on many fronts. Nowhere is this more starkly evident than in the twelve states of the Midwest region, where racial disparities in economic opportunity and economic outcomes are wider than they are in other regions, and policy […]

  Racial Justice

• Race in the Heartland: Equity, Opportunity, and Public Policy in the Midwest

  • October 10, 2019
  • Colin Gordon

  A number of factors—historical, economic, demographic, and political—have shaped patterns of racial disparity and race relations in the Midwest. Of the eight most segregated cities in 2010’s Census data, six (Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Cincinnati) are in the Midwest. And despite some pockets of Latino growth in the last generation, fully 91.4% […]

• The State of Working Wisconsin 2019: Fact & Figures

  • August 30, 2019
  • COWS
  • Laura Dresser & Joel Rogers

  Each year on Labor Day, COWS draws a picture of how working people in Wisconsin are faring. The long report, The State of Working Wisconsin, is released biannually on even-numbered years and looks at the economy comprehensively from a working-family perspective. In odd-numbered years, like 2019, we provide a more abbreviated and focused report, called […]

  Income Jobs State of Working X Unions Wages

• Investing in Wisconsin’s Future: Closing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Wisconsin’s Public Higher Education

  • October 2, 2018
  • COWS
  • Laura Dresser, Matthew Braunginn, and Emanuel Ubert.

  Securing strong economic opportunity for Wisconsin’s working families and closing racial and ethnic income disparity requires strong attention to the access and success of students of color at our state’s colleges and universities.

  Education Income Racial Justice Wages

• State of Working Wisconsin 2018

  • August 31, 2018
  • COWS
  • Laura Dresser, Joel Rogers, Emanuel Ubert, and Anna Walther

  A decade after the Great Recession, Wisconsin’s economy, at least in employment and family income, has finally and meaningfully recovered. Unemployment and involuntary part-time employment rates are low. And, nearly a fifth of the way into this new century, the value of the median income of four-person families finally exceeds its 2000 level. This is […]

  Income Jobs Racial Justice State of Working X Unions Wages

• Equity in Apprenticeship: Manufacturing Pathways in Milwaukee: Bringing Skills and Equity to Manufacturing’s Future

  • August 17, 2018
  • COWS
  • Laura Dresser, and Walker Kahn.

  Equity in Apprenticeship is a report series from COWS at UW-Madison. It highlights programs that use apprenticeship to extend occupational opportunity to historically marginalized groups, especially people of color and women. The Industrial Manufacturing Technician (IMT) program is the product of collaboration between labor and management leaders in Milwaukee’s manufacturing sector and has created a […]

  Education Income Job Training & Apprenticeships Jobs Manufacturing Wages

• Improving Health Outcomes for All Through Local Policy Making

  • March 13, 2018
  • COWS
  • Katya Spear

  First featured in the March 2018 Community Health issue of The Municipality – Your Voice. Your Wisconsin. Published by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. To be reprinted nationally in Current Municipal Problems, a quarterly, with a bound annual volume. For those interested in identifying and solving problems of local government, it is published by Thomson Rueters.

  Healthcare

• Wisconsin Job Watch: 4th Quarter 2017 Update

  • February 15, 2018
  • COWS
  • COWS

  In the fourth quarter of 2017, Wisconsin added 12,500 jobs, most of them in October. In contrast to the strong October, in December, Wisconsin actually lost jobs. Still, over the quarter, the state’s job base grew. Growth was driven by private sector gains, with the state adding 15,200 private jobs. The state lost 2,700 public […]

  Jobs Manufacturing Wages

• Wisconsin Job Watch: 3rd Quarter 2017 Update

  • November 14, 2017
  • COWS
  • COWS

  In the third quarter of 2017, Wisconsin posted modest job growth, adding just 7,300 jobs. Growth in September had to make up for job losses in the previous months. In August, the state lost 7,100 jobs – the worst month in jobs in more than a year. Private sector job growth in September was strong […]

  Jobs Manufacturing Wages