Despite an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, below the national rate of 6.6 percent, Wisconsin still lags the rest of the Midwest in job growth over the past three years.

Wisconsin stands ninth out of 10 Midwestern states in private sector job growth since Gov. Scott Walker took office in January, 2011, according to the most recent Current Employment Statistics (CES) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The CES, a timely but estimated number of jobs in each state, was widely followed each month in Wisconsin after Walker had vowed during the 2010 campaign that his policies of cutting taxes and being more business friendly would help create 250,000 new private sector jobs in his first term.

Net job growth is generally considered the strongest measure of a state economy since it reflects how many jobs are both created and lost over a specific period of time.