Casey: Focus on education, workforce, exporting for sustained prosperity

Wisconsin Department of Revenue Secretary Dave Casey

Wisconsin should prioritize workforce development—including investing in education—and should also support companies in maintaining or growing their exports to help soften the blow of tariffs, Wisconsin Department of Revenue Secretary Dave Casey told attendees at the 2025 Wisconsin Economic Summit, held in mid-October in Green Bay.

Casey said Wisconsin needs to attract more workers, particularly those who are between 25 and 40 years old. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, he said, Wisconsin has the eighth-lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 3.1%, as of July 2025. It’s a reflection of the strong Midwestern work ethic, he said, but it also signals difficulties for the labor market.

“It’s great that we have low unemployment, but we can’t find people to do the work,” Casey said. Wisconsin’s labor shortage is “back to pre-pandemic levels. There is a major skills and employment gap.”

Manufacturing—one of Wisconsin’s historic strengths—is up slightly overall, Casey said. A positive sign is that $2.4 billion has been added in net manufacturing property investment in Wisconsin over the past three years.

Tariff impact

However, tariffs are curtailing exports, Casey said. Wisconsin exports fell 2.9% in the first seven months of 2025 compared with the same period last year. Exports to Canada, Mexico, and China—the top markets for Wisconsin products—all dropped substantially. Sales of goods are down by 10.5% to Canada, by 5.1% to Mexico, and by 35.1% to China, according to the most recent DOR report.

In Wisconsin’s biggest export product category, industrial machinery, exports declined 13.1%, or $458 million, during the first seven months.

“So, we’re starting to see an impact this year of the trade war,” Casey said.

He said China usually buys 30% of the state’s soybean exports, but those purchases are down due to tariffs.

Focus on education

Casey said to keep Wisconsin strong, the state needs to build its labor supply and expand diversity in its economy.

One important way to grow the labor force is to invest in education. “Our tech colleges are economic engines,” Casey said. He also pointed to the collaboration between Microsoft and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Co-Innovation Lab that opened in June. “We can do that throughout the state,” he said.

Jobs in private education, health care, and social services have surpassed manufacturing employment and now represent the biggest sector of the state’s labor force, according to the Department of Workforce Development.

To lure more workers to the state, Casey said Wisconsin should take steps to create more affordable housing—especially in the Milwaukee and Madison metropolitan areas—make child care more affordable, and build a better transportation system.

Wisconsin’s taxes already are favorable, he said, with the lowest combined state and local tax rate in more than 50 years.

Casey said technology investments such as Microsoft’s collaboration with UW-Milwaukee and its TitletownTech venture capital partnership with the Green Bay Packers will continue expanding Wisconsin’s knowledge base. Increased specialization in niche agriculture crops such as ginseng, cranberries, and hemp can also play an important role in the state’s economic future, he added.