Listen to the address.

The worker shortage in Wisconsin is a reaching a fever pitch with employers across the state desperately searching for more workers. In a recent survey of Wisconsin businesses, 86% reported difficulty finding workers to fill jobs. On top of that, Wisconsin’s population growth lags behind our neighbors in the upper Midwest. If our state is to continue being competitive we must bolster our workforce by attracting more talent to Wisconsin and getting everyone off the sidelines.

Under Governor Walker the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation administered a talent recruitment program to bring more workers into Wisconsin from larger cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis for a better quality of life and lower cost of living.

When Governor Evers took office he killed the program with no alternative. To make matters worse Evers vetoed the Workforce and Education Fairness Act, authored by Senator Jacque that would have provided a tax credit for completing an apprenticeship program in the skilled trades. The tax credit would have helped those looking for a job in the type of career that will keep our economy humming along.

Aimlessly spending millions of dollars and expanding already failing government programs, as Evers has proposed, is not an effective strategy to fixing our workforce problems. Wisconsin needs real reforms to get people off the sidelines and into the workforce. We need to continue focusing on ways to make it easier to find work and attract more workers to Wisconsin. Our economy depends on it.

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