Wisconsin's manufacturing sector saw a summer slump, losing jobs or seeing no growth in monthly estimates from May to August.

October more than made up for that slip, bringing the largest single-month growth in Wisconsin manufacturing jobs in more than 17 years.

Wisconsin manufacturers added 5,400 jobs in October, according to preliminary estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That's the largest month-over-month positive growth since the state added 6,300 manufacturing jobs in April 1997, a time when the sector accounted for more than a quarter of Wisconsin's private-sector workforce (it's now about 19 percent).

The manufacturing growth sparked a net gain of 4,000 private-sector jobs in October, although a loss of 3,900 government jobs nearly offset all of that.

Wisconsin's unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent in October, down from 5.5 percent in September and 6.5 percent in October 2013.

Explore the monthly changes by sector and see how Wisconsin compares to its neighbors in our graphic keeping track of job growth since Gov. Scott Walker took office:

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