In today’s economic climate, there are plenty of people hunting for jobs.  Recent data puts Wisconsin’s unemployment numbers at 8.8, just a notch above the national average. Last night, we met a good amount of Wisconsin job-seekers face to face. Wired Wisconsin attended MKE Live’s Linked in Live Milwaukee—a networking event—and most of the 200 attendees were looking for work. One person at the event mentioned something very interesting to us: many unemployed people in the state are disadvantaged because they either don’t have internet access or don’t know how to utilize the internet to find a job. 

According to the most recent data from the Pew Internet Project, the number of people who look for jobs online is growing rapidly. The study also mentions that an increasing amount of employers are turning to the internet to find quality employees. Imagine being out of a job and not having a reliable source of internet to find employment.  People without internet access or with access that’s slow and unreliable are at a significant disadvantage when it comes for looking for work.

In many parts of Wisconsin, people still do not have access to high-speed internet.  When times are this tough, limited internet access could potentially hamper many Wisconsin job-seekers.