MADISON - Last Friday’s gubernatorial debate was marked not just by the questions Scott Walker wouldn’t answer, like whether or not he believes in a minimum wage, but for his blatant distortions of his record on everything from jobs to women’s healthcare -- to include the baffling statement that “We don’t have a jobs problem.”

Walker went on to say that Wisconsin has a “work problem.”

Scott Walker ran for office in 2010 on a central campaign promise to create 250,000 new private sector jobs in his first term in office. With less than three months to go, that’s officially a “promise broken,” as Walker has created fewer than half the jobs he promised and Wisconsin is ranked dead last -- 10th out of 10 states -- in the Midwest in private sector job growth.

That’s according to the most current and accurate federal jobs data available, Scott Walker’s “gold standard” Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages jobs data. The same data also shows that during Walker’s time in office, Wisconsin’s annual private sector job growth averaged 1.35% compared to 2.2% nationally. Had Wisconsin simply grown jobs at the national rate over Walker’s term, we would have 73,914 more jobs than we do today.

The latest monthly numbers don’t show any signs of improvement; Wisconsin saw a loss of 4,300 jobs in August alone.

“If dead last in the Midwest in private sector job growth isn’t a ‘jobs problem’ then I don’t know what is,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Monday. “Even though his misplaced top-down approach has led to Wisconsin’s lagging economy and failure on jobs, it’s no surprise that Walker refuses any accountability. But the suggestion that Wisconsinites struggling to find work aren’t trying hard enough is pretty low, even for Scott Walker.”