Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
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The Wisconsin Policy Forum’s analysis of sectors of Wisconsin’s economy most affected by recent COVID-19 business closures shows the workers most affected include many low-wage earners, and regions most affected include those with economies that rely on tourism.
In six counties, at least one out of every four jobs depends on tourism, including three of the state’s most popular visitor destinations: Adams (covering a portion of the Wisconsin Dells area), Door, and Walworth (Lake Geneva area). The other three are in the state’s Northwoods (Vilas, Bayfield, and Sawyer). These are counties with high concentrations of jobs in accommodation, food services, entertainment, and recreation.
These counties tend to have relatively small populations and job totals. While the state’s two largest metropolitan areas (Milwaukee and Madison) have smaller shares of jobs in these categories, large numbers of workers will still be affected. Milwaukee County has more than 88,000 jobs in entertainment and cultural venues, including Miller Park, Fiserv Forum, Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, which have all been shuttered.
Further, average wages for jobs in these sectors are substantially lower than the average across all jobs — roughly one-third the average among all jobs in Wisconsin. These jobs are also much more likely to be filled by younger workers, with 31.9% filled by workers under the age of 25 compared with 13.7% across all jobs. They are also somewhat more likely to be filled by women, racial minorities, and those without college degrees.
The full range of economic impacts stemming from the COVID-19 crisis are not yet known and will be affected greatly by the duration of travel and social distancing restrictions and the pace of the pandemic’s decline. Nevertheless, these findings should be taken into account now that the federal government has taken initial action and state government considers additional relief for critical sectors of the state’s economy and for citizens in Wisconsin’s most vulnerable areas.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
