Wisconsin businesses say high interest rates have slowed expansion plans

Wisconsin businesses are relatively pessimistic about the economy as they combat high interest rates and inflation. But the state continues to outperform the nation when it comes to unemployment and workforce participation.

The state Department of Workforce Development on Thursday announced that employment hit a new record high for the third month in a row with 3,049,700 total people employed in July.

However, state data shows private sector jobs decreased by 8,500 over the month, but were still up 17,900 over the year. At the same time, Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate was unchanged from June at 65.5 percent, and its unemployment rate remained low at 3 percent, better than the national rate of 4.3 percent in July.