Gov. Evers Delivers Radio Address, Celebrates Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a national leader in manufacturing, with over 470,000 manufacturing jobs across nearly 9,000 companies, making Wisconsin #1 in the nation for manufacturing employment per capita. Unfortunately, according to a nonpartisan report as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the manufacturing industry nationwide lost over 187,000 jobs, including over 41,000 jobs in the Midwest and over 6,000 jobs in Wisconsin alone, due to President Trump’s 2025 tariffs.

Since Day One, Gov. Evers has worked hard to support the state’s manufacturing industry and workforce, welcoming global companies to the state and even declaring 2024 the Year of the Worker in Wisconsin to highlight the need to address the state’s generational workforce challenges and promote new efforts by the Evers Administration to build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy.

Gov. Evers’ efforts to bolster Wisconsin’s workforce have extended well beyond 2024 the Year of the Worker. In fact, in 2021, Gov. Evers launched the state’s Workforce Solutions Initiative, which works to connect unemployed or underemployed workers with new opportunities while also incentivizing innovative solutions to regional workforce challenges. Included in Gov. Evers’ Workforce Solutions Initiative were three innovative programs: the Workforce Innovation Grant Program, the Workforce Advancement Initiative, and the Worker Connection Program. To date, programs included in the governor’s Workforce Solutions Initiative have collectively served over 130,000 Wisconsin workers across the state. Further, through this innovative program, the governor directed over $9 million to support the new Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering Technology, and Apprenticeship Center at Mid-State Technical College.

Additionally, this April, Gov. Evers kicked off “National Apprenticeship Week” in Wisconsin by celebrating that, for the fifth year in a row, Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship program for high school students saw record-high enrollment. During the 2025-26 school year, a record 12,141 students enrolled in the program, a seven percent increase from the prior year. This is on top of four consecutive years of record-high enrollment in the state’s Registered Apprenticeship Program.

Gov. Evers also knows that the Wisconsin Technical College System is essential to the future of the state’s manufacturing industry and workforce. The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed by Gov. Evers last year invests $13 million over the biennium in supporting Wisconsin’s technical colleges.

A transcript of the governor’s address is below.

Hey there, folks! Governor Tony Evers here. October is Manufacturing Month.

Wisconsin has a proud manufacturing heritage. We’re known world over for our unparalleled quality, craftsmanship, and world-class workforce.

We are a national leader in manufacturing, with over 470,000 manufacturing jobs across nearly 9,000 companies, making us #1 in the nation for manufacturing employment.

And that doesn’t happen by chance. It’s thanks to the collaboration of industry, academic, and state and local partners, like our top-ranked technical college system.

When companies want to not only make things but make them right, they make them here in Wisconsin.

That’s why, as a state, we’ve been proud to support this vital industry.

From welcoming global companies to our state to creating family-supporting jobs to expanding worker training and apprenticeships and reducing barriers to work for folks across the state.

Unfortunately, all that good work is being put in jeopardy by President Trump’s reckless, chaotic, and, frankly, illegal trade wars and the Republicans in Congress who refuse to do anything to stand up to him.

With higher costs for imported materials needed to make goods and retaliatory tariffs by other countries, manufacturers across the Midwest are hurting, and it’s costing working families their jobs.

According to a recent nonpartisan report, the manufacturing industry lost over 180,000 jobs nationwide due to President Trump’s 2025 tariffs.

Over 41,000 of those lost jobs were here in the Midwest and over 6,000 in Wisconsin alone.

Folks, President Trump and Republicans in Congress—including those from Wisconsin—have turned their backs on the Midwest and the industries that made us the state and country we are today.

Wisconsin deserves leaders that are going to stand up to President Trump, and that’s exactly what we are going to continue to do. Thank you.