By the numbers
Job postings in Wisconsin available on the job-search website Indeed, which had been falling since a 2022 peak following pandemic disruptions, have steadied over the past 10 months, data from the Indeed Hiring Lab show.
The graph above shows the seven-day rolling average level of job postings on Indeed relative to February 2020 for Wisconsin and its neighboring states. Indeed is a leading job site. The data includes jobs posted directly to the site as well as those aggregated from other sources. A reading of 120 means that job postings are 20 percent more numerous than in February 2020.
Job postings plummeted in the early months of the pandemic, falling nearly 35 percent by mid-May 2020. By the end of 2020, however, job openings recovered, rising to a peak at the end of March 2022 that was 70% higher than on the eve of the pandemic.
Relative to February 2020, Iowa has seen consistently higher levels of job openings than Wisconsin. Michigan and Wisconsin have tracked closely together, while Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota have seen relatively lower levels of job openings. Minnesota and Illinois have fewer openings today than they did in February 2020.
