Median wages have hit a record high in Wisconsin, but job growth has stalled and the state’s Black unemployment rate is rising.
Those are the main findings from “The State of Working Wisconsin 2026,” a new report on the state’s job market. The annual report is released by the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning “think-and-do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The report found that after hitting a record high number of jobs — 3,051,000 — in November 2024, the state had just 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026.
“Job growth has ground to a halt, and though wages hit a new high in 2025, high inflation is undermining workers’ wages in 2026,” said Laura Dresser, author of the report and the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center.
“The (report) still shows some very bright spots, but the clouds are gathering on the economic horizon.”
Dresser told WPR the report’s findings showed a “mixed picture.”
“There’s some really great news still in this economy,” she said. “We’ve had a strong recovery from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been sustained and we show again that we got a new high in median wages in 2025.”
Last year’s report found that the economy was softening, and Dresser said some of those trends have continued.
Report sees higher unemployment ahead
The state’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%. That is low but “drifting upward” compared to the 2.6% unemployment rate in 2023, the report found.
“With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise,” the report said.
And the state has been losing jobs since 2025.
“Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt,” the report said.
It also found that Wisconsin’s economy “is riddled with inequalities by geography, race, education and gender.”
The report said the unemployment rate for Black Wisconsinites is, “growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups.”
Wisconsin’s Black unemployment rate was 7.2% during the first quarter of 2026, matching the national rate, according to the report. But the state’s unemployment rate for white residents was 2.3%.
“In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank,” the report said. “But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly.”
Wisconsin’s median wage hit a record $26.17 per hour last year. Data for this year are not yet available, “but the signs there are troubling,” the report said.
“Inflation has risen and wage gains have been weaker,” the report said. “As it did in 2022, inflation could wipe out the wage gains of 2026.”
State unionization rate plunges
The state’s unionization rate is also fell from 14% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2025.
“State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure,” the report said.
Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, pointed to the impacts of Act 10 on union membership in Wisconsin. She also said growing interest in unions makes her “hopeful for the future.”
“We do see a lot of interest in organizing,” Fendt said.
A new Gallup Poll found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, despite efforts by some to raise it.
“An increase in the state minimum wage to $20 by 2030 would raise wages for more than 730,000 Wisconsin workers,” the report said.
“All the neighboring states except for Iowa are on a dramatically different path for minimum wages, and this state has (for) too long just not attended to the minimum wage and raising it for the state’s lower paid workers,” Dresser said.
Fendt said Milwaukee Area Labor Council also supports raising the minimum wage.
“Getting it to $20 an hour by 2030 is something that we support because, honestly, the minimum wage has been stagnant for way too long,” Fendt said.
A version of this story was originally published by WPR.
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