MMAC INSIDER: MKE reaches all time high for employment

It's been almost 19 years since metro Milwaukee last registered an annual average employment high. In that period, we have gone through two national recessions -- one mild and one deep. At the present pace of growth, the metro area should reach a new all-time high in 2018, averaging an estimated 875,300, somewhat higher than the year 2000 average of 874,700.

Likewise, the metro area unemployment rate should reach a historical low. At the present pace, the local unemployment rate should average an estimated 3% in 2018, below the record 3.2% average rate posted in 1999. While the historical record only goes from 1990 to present for this series, a review of unrevised data from earlier years suggest that the annual rate has not been lower since sometime before 1970. >>Read more of this eNewsletter