Latest Wisconsin Broadband News from UW-Madison Extension’s Broadband Team. Contains updates on the newly approved BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2, Letter of Intent Period webinar and deadlines, funding opportunity webinar, RDOF defaults, engagement and endorsement, and other resources.
Lac Du Flambeau Housing Summit will take place on October 28th at Lake of the Torches Casino Conference Center.
June 2025 – The CEC Conference was held in Wisconsin Rapids, the conference “about small towns, for small towns,” for economic developers, local government leaders, and community champions. Not your typical conference, CEC features programming about entrepreneurship in smaller communities, featuring the local leaders, local businesses, and local cultures of a Wisconsin town.
The UW-Madison Division of Extension – Vernon and La Crosse Counties hosted the second stop of the Wisconsin Rural Regional Housing Summit Series, a groundbreaking initiative designed to address the pressing housing challenges faced by rural communities across Wisconsin.
Following a national trend, Wisconsin is experiencing a structural labor shortage: there are not enough qualified workers to fill available jobs. From January 2021 through February 2025, the state averaged 190,180 job openings per month, while only 97,081 individuals were unemployed resulting in an average monthly shortfall of 93,099 workers. This imbalance, combined with low unemployment and declining labor force participation, means that while job seekers may have an easier time finding work, there are simply not enough people actively seeking employment to meet demand. Contributing factors include an aging population, childcare and eldercare responsibilities (which disproportionately impact women), and a mismatch between the skills of available workers and the requirements of open positions.
Housing affordability is a growing concern across Wisconsin and the U.S. at large. Housing costs continue to rise while affordable options are getting harder to find and while job earnings have grown, earnings have failed to keep pace with housing costs. The result is that many households are struggling to keep up with the increasing cost of housing, leading to housing financial stress and increasing instability. While there is no widely accepted measure of housing financial stress, a common method uses a threshold of spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The number of households in the United States and Wisconsin spending over 30% of their income on housing is steadily increasing with no signs of slowing down.
Latest Wisconsin Broadband News from UW-Madison Extension’s Broadband Team. Contains updates on the newly approved BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2, Letter of Intent Period webinar and deadlines, funding opportunity webinar, RDOF defaults, engagement and endorsement, and other resources.
Latest Wisconsin Broadband News from UW-Madison Extension’s Broadband Team. Contains updates on the newly approved BEAD Initial Proposal Volume 2, Letter of Intent Period webinar and deadlines, funding opportunity webinar, RDOF defaults, engagement and endorsement, and other resources.
The Wisconsin Digital Navigator Network brings together agencies, nonprofits, community leaders, and others working on digital skills education. Improving digital skills, alongside broadband deployment, increases internet adoption (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2025). The network meets the first Wednesday of the month, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Members engage in peer learning, learn from presenters both within […]
(Image Source: Aaron Lefler / Unsplash) Understanding the process of utility pole attachments and rights of way is a crucial step in successful broadband deployment. Join us for this informative webinar where you’ll learn how to effectively collaborate with existing utilities to enhance your broadband expansion project. What You’ll Gain: Intended Audience: This webinar is […]
Wisconsin follows the nationwide trend of a relatively small yet growing number of diverse business owners. This recent growth suggests a promising and economically important future for diverse business owners despite evidence that they face significant challenges.
Click on each link to read the full case study. This first column doesn’t have a background color. It will likely serve as a description of the other columns. Item One Name This text is a description of this item. A key feature of this pattern is the icon at the top. Click on the […]