More than 41,000 people lost access to food stamps within the first year of a new state law that requires some FoodShare recipients to seek employment, while nearly 12,000 people found jobs through a new job training program for recipients, state data show.

A report released by the Department of Health Services on Wednesday shows 11,971 participants of the FoodShare Employment and Training program reported finding employment. Meanwhile, 41,149 able-bodied adults without children lost FoodShare benefits after the state said they failed to seek employment.

Since last April, the DHS referred 107,033 people to the FSET program, while 32,193 ultimately enrolled, according to the DHS report. The FoodShare program served some 770,000 people in 2015. Wednesday’s report was released after the Wisconsin State Journal reported in November that 15,000 people lost FoodShare benefits in the first three months of the new state requirement.

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Federal officials reject extending protections for Upper Midwestern moose DHS spokeswoman Claire Yunker said the department does not track how many of those who gained employment are no longer enrolled in the FoodShare program.

Nor does the administration track how many people who are eligible for the program found work on their own.

“There’s a larger number of people enrolled in the program,” Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement Wednesday. “But what many of the critics don’t account for is sometimes people who are initially looking for assistance were told about the program — that they’d either have to look for work or be enrolled — (and they) will just opt to go get a job on their own.”

The DHS report was released on a day Walker stopped in several cities touting the new jobs and the $60 million lawmakers approved in the 2013-15 and 2015-17 state budgets to help FoodShare recipients find employment.

The 2013-15 state budget created a rule for some recipients of the state’s food stamp program known as FoodShare: If you’re an able-bodied adult without children living at home, you must work at least 80 hours a month or look for work to stay in the program.

That rule went into effect in April 2015, and since July, more than half of the eligible FoodShare recipients were dropped from the program for not seeking employment, according to the new DHS data.

Participants can get three months of FoodShare benefits before being removed from the program if they don’t look for work.

DHS Secretary Kitty Rhoades on Wednesday praised the job training component of the program.

“Wisconsin employers are looking for qualified, skilled workers, and increasing the ability of able-bodied adults to fill these positions will allow more employers to grow and expand, improving the state economy and offering more Wisconsinites a path to independence and prosperity,” Rhoades said in the statement.

When lawmakers considered the proposal, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that 63,000 adults without dependents were expected to have to work or participate in training at least 20 hours a week to get full FoodShare benefits, and that about half of such recipients likely would drop out.

But Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food, said Wednesday the results of the program “are abysmal.”

“The waste of tax dollars is extreme — 41,149 Wisconsinites are facing hunger as part of this failed reform,” she said.

Tussler said her organization has seen increased demand for “emergency food” and tied that increase to the state’s new work requirement.

Walker on Wednesday defended the program and its results. He said after lawmakers dedicated the $60 million over two budgets, job training for recipients is more consistent.

“Services provided by this job training program are now consistent across the state, which makes coordination with local employers easier and results in more jobs, better work experience opportunities, and stronger communities,” Walker said.