No final rating

It didn't get as much attention as his pledge to create 250,000 jobs during his first term as governor, which turned out to bea Promise Broken on our Walk-O-Meter.

But Scott Walker also promised to create 10,000 new businesses during his first term, which ended in January 2015.

And it happens to be the only promise on the Walk-O-Meter, which tracks Walker's campaign promises, that doesn't have a final rating.

So with Walker days away from leaving office, having been defeated in his bid for a third term by Democrat Tony Evers in the November 2018 election, let's take another look at the new businesses pledge.

As we reported in our most recent review of the promise, a reliable count isn't as easy as one might imagine.

Here's why:

Data from the state Department of Financial Institutions, which Walker has relied on, measures the total number of registered business entities in the state. It counts new ventures that bring new jobs  — but also thousands with no workers on the payroll at all and little, if any, prospect of hires to come. That is, groups such as Scout troops and volunteer fire departments, and thousands of limited-liability companies set up by real-estate investors solely to hold ownership of property or properties.

Another  measure comes from employment surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that count the number of business "establishments." But it is also problematic. The way the federal count is done, one company may consist of multiple establishment locations, such as stores, factories, mines, farms, etc.

In short, there isn't a sound way to do a count in order to give this promise a final rating. So, we're leaving it without one.