Jobs report shows improvement except in manufacturing

MILWAUKEE -- A new jobs report shows more people are getting back to work. The national unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September. That's the lowest rate since January 2009. However, manufacturing is not seeing any of that benefit.

In Wisconsin, manufacturing is king. There are more than 700 welding and machinist jobs open in southeast Wisconsin. But finding skilled workers is the problem.

"Our bread and butter in this state is still manufacturing. We still want to embrace manufacturing, there's a lot of job openings in manufacturing," said Gov. Scott Walker on Friday.

Gov. Walker says one way to shrink the gap is encouraging more education.

"The old idea that manufacturing jobs were at your reach just out of high school, but that's not the case," said Gov. Walker.

Finding skilled workers is a struggle and C&D Technologies in Milwaukee. Mayor Tom Barrett has been working on a program throughout the city that matches people with jobs.

"The Mayor's Manufacturing Partnership ties manufacturers directly to workers and gets them trained for specific jobs that currently exist," said Barrett on Friday.

The program has placed 136 people to jobs across the city. 136 others are in the pipeline.

"Milwaukee and Wisconsin are both ranked #1 and #2 nationally in manufacturing per capita, so this is a very, very important part of our economy," said Barrett.