It wouldn’t be a monthly release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' state-by-state jobs numbers without another taxpayer-funded cheerleading job from Gov Scott Walker’s Department of Workforce Development. Here are some of the stats they prop in their release.

· Wisconsin ranked third in the Midwest for rate of private sector job growth year-over-year.

· Wisconsin's 12-month gain in [rate of] total nonfarm jobs ranked ahead of Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

· Wisconsin's rate of year-over-year manufacturing job growth ranked 15th highest in the country, ahead of Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.

And Wisconsin is indeed third out of the 7 Midwestern states when it comes to these stats since September 2013. Total private sector job growth in September 2014 looks great on the surface Wisconsin added 8,400 jobs private sector jobs in the month, allowing us to rank third in the Midwest for the month as well. But then look at the two blue states bordering us, who both had blowout numbers.

Private sector job change, Sept 2014

Ill. +18,400

Minn +11,400

Wis. +8,400

Mich +5,300

Ohio +3,000

Iowa -200

Ind. -1,900

The same pattern expands when you look at the last two months combined, as Minnesota has added 14,700 more private sector jobs than Wisconsin since July, and Illinois 33,700 more jobs! Despite only gaining 4,800 private sector jobs over that time period, Wisconsin still stands as third in the Midwest here, because the 3 other states that are completely run by Republicans (Indiana, Michigan and Ohio) have actually lost jobs in that same time frame. (those of you in those states may want to make a note of that)

Moving out to all of 2014, Wisconsin still rates third for private sector job growth in the Midwest, but it is still less than half the national rate of job growth of 1.72%, and behind our more progressive friends to the west.

Private sector job growth, Midwest, Jan-Sept 2014

Ind. +1.03%

Minn +0.91%

Wis. +0.74%

Ill. +0.63%

Mich +0.55%

Ohio +0.53%

Iowa +0.27%