Gov. Evers Calls Legislature into Special Session to Address State's Chronic Workforce Challenges

Press Release

"With the largest surplus in state history, my biennial budget included meaningful, comprehensive, long-term investments and solutions to address Wisconsin's longstanding workforce challenges, reduce barriers to employment, and prevent these challenges from becoming an unmitigated crisis that would have calamitous consequences for Wisconsin's already-strapped workforce. Unfortunately, Republicans failed to meet the moment, sending my budget back to my desk absent critical investments in key areas that they know and publicly acknowledge are essential to the success of our state.

With already historically low unemployment and high workforce participation and a shrinking labor pool caused by several long-term factors, Wisconsin's small businesses, farmers and producers, hospitals and healthcare sectors, schools, and other critical employers and industries continue to face significant, generational challenges filling available jobs. Truly addressing these longstanding challenges must include efforts to ensure workers who are already participating in Wisconsin's workforce can remain in the workforce, targeted investments to bolster key industries and sectors facing significant challenges, and initiatives to ensure Wisconsin can be competitive in retaining and recruiting talented workers.

Today, I'm calling on the Legislature to finish their work on the 2023-25 biennial budget and pass a comprehensive plan to address our state's chronic workforce issues. These challenges that have plagued our state for generations will continue, holding our economy, our families, and our state back if Republicans in the Legislature don't take seriously the second chance I'm giving them, and urgently. We must work together in the coming weeks so we can bolster our state's workforce, maintain our economic momentum, and most importantly, do the right thing for Wisconsin."

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