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Wisconsin turned in another subpar job creation report Thursday with news that it gained 28,653 private-sector jobs in the 12 months from March 2013 to March 2014, according to data released late Thursday by the state Department of Workforce Development.

The data is from a comprehensive report called the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which tracks jobs and wages in rolling 12-month increments and is published every three months. Typically the quarterly data is released by federal authorities and used to compare each of the 50 states against each other.

However, under a practice that began two years under the administration of Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the state releases the quarterly census data for Wisconsin several weeks ahead of the national report. That means the data appears in isolation, making it impossible to compare Wisconsin's performance with other states.

Compared to the state's own performance in previous census tallies, however, Thursday's March-to-March report shows that Wisconsin continues to add jobs at a pace that's virtually unchanged throughout the current economic recovery.

In recent years, the Badger State added private-sector jobs in a range of 23,000 to 37,000 in its 12-month census reports. In the most recent full national report that breaks out comparative state-by-state data — and covered the 12 months of 2013 — Wisconsin gained 28,141 private-sector jobs. That amounted to a 1.2% growth rate that ranked it 37th among the 50 states.

That meant that Wisconsin added private-sector jobs last year at about half the national rate of 2.1%. Wisconsin has lagged the national rate of job creation since July 2011.

Job creation and management of the economy have emerged as a politically potent issue in November's gubernatorial race between Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke. When he ran for office, Walker pledged the state would add 250,000 private-sector jobs by the end of his four-year term. At the current pace, that goal appears mathematically out of reach.

The quarterly data are based on a census of 96% of all employers in each state. That makes the quarterly census far more reliable than monthly jobs estimates, which are based on a sample of 3% of employers, and prone to large margins of error.

Because quarterly data are time-consuming to compile, they are released with a half-year time lag. In the past, the lagging schedule meant the quarterly data got less attention than monthly numbers. Ever since the 2012 recall elections, the quarterly report has been closely watched by state politicians and economic policy strategists.

The state's sluggish job-creation pace is hardly a new phenomenon, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of more than a decade of census data. The Badger State has consistently trailed the U.S. average by wide margins for most of the last 10 years — a period that encompasses the tenures of both Walker, who took office in January 2011, and his Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, who held the office from 2003 through 2010.