MADISON — The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) released the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) preliminary employment estimates for the month of October. The data shows that Wisconsin’s total non-farm jobs decreased by 1,000 in Oct. when compared to Sept. while Wisconsin’s private-sector jobs increased by 2,000 in the month of Oct. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate in Oct. was 3.2%, down 0.2 percentage points from Sept. revised rate of 3.4%.

Sept. unemployment rate was revised downward significantly — this was due to a data distortion that was discovered by the BLS retrospectively in a neighboring state’s data. The distortion affected data from all states in the region, including Wisconsin’s. It is important to note that the drop in the unemployment rate was not due to any economic event; it was a series adjustment. Data from Sept. through Dec. should not be compared to data from Jan. through Aug.

Data from Jan. through Aug. will be revised during the benchmarking process that occurs in Jan. and Feb. each year. The BLS website has additional information on the event.