La Crosse employment rate now essentially at full capacity

Metro area is below what economist call full employment levels

La Crosse has essentially reached full employment.  

Economists generally agree that full employment levels are when joblessness gets to 3 percent or lower.

According to new numbers released by the state this week, La Crosse has done that and then some. 

The state pegs the La Crosse metro area unemployment rate at 2.7 percent.

Madison, with the lowest unemployment in the state at 2.1 percent, also has one of the lowest 10 jobless rates in the nation.  

For April, the state says, most of the biggest metro areas of the state have reached or exceeded the 3-percent level of unemployment.