Marketplace Today Blog

By Rick Romell
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Unemployment in Wisconsin will probably hit 8 percent by late this year before beginning to improve in 2010, a new report from the state Department of Revenue says.

The quarterly Wisconsin Economic Outlook confirms what many had already concluded: The state has joined the country as a whole in slipping into recession.

The expected rise in unemployment is steep. The statewide rate stood at 5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, though that number is expected to be revised upward in March.

To read the report, go to www.revenue.wi.gov/ra/0812/0812exec_summary.pdf.