(Wisconsin) The number of Wisconsin businesses having trouble finding workers dropped to its lowest level in a decade, according to the results of the latest Wisconsin Employer Survey conducted by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. The organization released some of the survey data in an Economy & Workforce this week.
Just 63-percent of the respondents of the semiannual CEO survey said they were having trouble finding workers, down from 72-percent a year ago and 68 percent in the summer. The last time the percentage was this low was in the winter of 2015 when 63.9-percent of survey respondents said they were having trouble hiring.
The labor shortage is still tied with health care costs as the top public policy issue facing Wisconsin, according to the survey. Rising health care costs came up several times in the survey. For example, when asked “what is one thing state government could do to help your business,” a plurality of 41-percent said make health care more affordable.
That is up from 30-percent in the summer. As for an overall economic forecast, 63-percent say the Wisconsin economy will see growth in the first half of the new year, while 34-percent say it will remain flat.
