Walker Touts Unemployment Rate While Touring Yacht Manufacturer

Gov. Scott Walker took the opportunity to tout the state’s 4.3 percent unemployment rate while visiting a yacht-making facility in northeastern Wisconsin Thursday.

Marquis and Carver Yachts makes pleasure boats in Pulaski, which they sell to a wealthy clientele. While touring the plant, Walker remarked that the boats were impressive: “I think it’d take me a long time to save up for that,” he said.

The yacht plant has hired 80 new workers in recent months, who get paid $16 an hour plus benefits. Walker, noting that the company also plans to hire more people, said that it was a sign that the state’s economy is rebounding.

“Potentially in the next couple years, if a couple of these deals go through, you could have as many as 500 to 600 employees on site here,” he said.

The new jobs come as a study by the Pew Research Center shows the number of middle-class Americans has dipped below 50 percent.