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News Release Information

23-1492-CHI
Friday, August 25, 2023

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:
  • (312) 353-1138

Occupational Employment and Wages in Wausau — May 2022

Workers in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $26.25 in May 2022, 12 percent below the nationwide average of $29.76, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 16 of the 22 major occupational groups, including legal; computer and mathematical; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media. Only one group had significantly higher wages than their respective national average: healthcare practitioners and technical.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Wausau area employment was more highly concentrated in 5 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and healthcare practitioners and technical. Sixteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, food preparation and serving related, and educational instruction and library. (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Wausau metropolitan area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2022
Major occupational groupPercent of total employmentMean hourly wage
United StatesWausauUnited StatesWausauPercent difference (1)

Total, all occupations

100.0100.0$29.76$26.25*-12

Management

6.74.1*63.0858.98*-6

Business and financial operations

6.55.5*41.3935.01*-15

Computer and mathematical

3.42.3*51.9939.44*-24

Architecture and engineering

1.72.0*45.5236.67*-19

Life, physical, and social science

0.90.6*40.2132.03*-20

Community and social service

1.61.3*26.8124.61*-8

Legal

0.80.5*59.8744.48*-26

Educational instruction and library

5.74.5*30.4124.19*-20

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.40.8*36.7824.74*-33

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.16.9*46.5249.19*6

Healthcare support

4.63.8*17.1016.98-1

Protective service

2.31.4*25.9722.60*-13

Food preparation and serving related

8.56.5*15.4513.71*-11

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.92.3*17.2616.21*-6

Personal care and service

1.91.1*17.4117.00-2

Sales and related

8.98.6*24.2222.62*-7

Office and administrative support

12.612.721.9020.76*-5

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.30.2*18.2118.733

Construction and extraction

4.13.4*28.0828.020

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.94.4*26.7726.21*-2

Production

5.917.0*21.8121.760

Transportation and material moving

9.210.0*21.1220.03*-5

Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The mean hourly wage or percent share of employment is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90-percent confidence level.

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Wausau had 11,780 jobs in production, accounting for 17.0 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 5.9-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.76, compared to the national wage of $21.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,850); food batchmakers (1,040); first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (990); and welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers (980). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and computer numerically controlled tool programmers, with mean hourly wages of $31.09 and $26.21, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were bakers ($15.86) and sewing machine operators ($15.97). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_48140.htm.)

Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Wausau area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food batchmakers were employed at 13.3 times the national rate in Wausau, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 11.5 times the U.S. average. Machinists had a location quotient of 1.1 in Wausau, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Changes to the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Data

The May 2022 OEWS estimates use the model-based (MB3) estimation method implemented with the May 2021 estimates release. Additional updates were made to the MB3 wage processing methodology for May 2022. For more information, see the May 2022 Survey Methods and Reliability Statement.

The May 2022 estimates are the first OEWS estimates to be produced using the 2022 NAICS, which replaces the 2017 NAICS used for the May 2017-May 2021 estimates. See North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at BLS for details.


Technical Note

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey is a semiannual survey measuring occupational employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States. The OEWS data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for the nation; over 580 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates at the NAICS sector, 3-digit, most 4-digit, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2022 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2022, November 2021, May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, and November 2019. The unweighted sampled employment of 80 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 57 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.4 percent based on establishments and 62.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,018 establishments with a response rate of 71 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

Metropolitan area definitions

The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

The Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Marathon County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Wausau metropolitan area, May 2022
Occupation (1)EmploymentMean wages
Level (2)Location quotient (3)HourlyAnnual (4)

Production occupations

11,7802.9$21.76$45,260

First-line supervisors of production and operating workers

9903.231.0964,670

Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers

1801.420.4142,450

Structural metal fabricators and fitters

2308.523.9249,750

Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators

1,8502.718.0937,630

Bakers

400.515.8632,990

Butchers and meat cutters

601.018.9839,490

Food batchmakers

1,04013.321.3044,300

Food cooking machine operators and tenders

403.022.7647,340

Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

501.819.9441,480

Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

4004.719.3740,300

Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

1003.018.0537,550

Machinists

1601.121.3044,310

Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

500.822.6247,050

Tool and die makers

702.525.5753,180

Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers

9805.123.7549,400

Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders

704.722.5846,960

Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic

805.317.8637,140

Printing press operators

1101.522.3846,540

Print binding and finishing workers

402.317.5436,480

Sewing machine operators

500.815.9733,220

Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters

1202.719.8441,270

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

1607.218.4838,440

Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing

31010.418.0637,570

Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

601.025.2652,540

Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders

502.225.6053,250

Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders

1803.525.2352,470

Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders

1907.323.3248,500

Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders

802.921.8845,510

Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers

4601.722.7747,350

Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders

7804.520.3642,340

Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders

3905.420.1041,800

Computer numerically controlled tool operators

4004.823.9049,720

Computer numerically controlled tool programmers

302.626.2154,510

Etchers and engravers

307.621.5244,770

Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic

904.720.7943,250

Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders

50011.525.5653,160

Helpers--production workers

2002.322.2146,190

Production workers, all other

1501.317.0635,470

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_48140.htm.
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations may not sum to the totals due to rounding, and because the totals may include occupations that are not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.
(3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.
(4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, August 25, 2023