By Marina Dimitrijevic

Wisconsin was once home to a thriving manufacturing industry where workers brought home enough of a salary to support their families. But the American dream has turned into a nightmare for Wisconsin’s families.

A new state-by-state analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that Wisconsin experienced the biggest decline in middle-class households in the country between the years 2000 and 2013. Moreover, Wisconsin saw a 14% decline in median household income.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine explains “that our economy relies on manufacturing perhaps more than any other state; when manufacturing gets hit hard, Wisconsin gets hit hard too,” he said. Since 2000, Wisconsin has lost about 90,000 manufacturing jobs, according to Levine, in part due to free-trade agreements and Chinese imports.

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