Workers in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.53 in May 2023, compared to the nationwide average of $31.48, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($60.94), legal ($56.14), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($49.67). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.72), personal care and service ($17.49), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.66). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Appleton area included production (13.1 percent), office and administrative support (12.1 percent), and transportation and material moving (9.8 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.3 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.0 percent). (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Appleton had 16,220 jobs in production, accounting for 13.1 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.60, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,100), food batchmakers (1,470), and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,350). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers with mean hourly wages of $34.01, water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators ($31.78), and computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($30.48). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($16.10) and bakers ($16.74). (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_11540.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 Appleton area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, food batchmakers were employed at 10.7 times the national rate in Appleton, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 8.3 times the U.S. average. Bakers had a location quotient of 1.1 in Appleton, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

The statistics in this release are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support. State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data: in this case, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

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. Full OEWS data tables are available online.

Additional information about the OEWS estimates and methodology are available in the national Technical Notes. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 65.8 percent based on establishments and 64.3 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,536 establishments with a response rate of 66 percent.

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 Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Calumet County and Outagamie County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data, as well as general program documentation, are available on the OEWS website.

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, Appleton metropolitan area, May 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	16,220	2.3	23.60	49,080
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,350	2.5	34.01	70,730
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	570	2.6	21.01	43,690
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	100	2.2	25.82	53,700
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,100	1.7	21.07	43,820
Bakers	200	1.1	16.74	34,820
Butchers and meat cutters	80	0.7	21.93	45,610
Food batchmakers	1,470	10.7	20.88	43,440
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	110	4.5	22.79	47,390
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	180	3.5	22.00	45,760
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	320	2.2	22.89	47,610
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	2.0	22.03	45,830
Machinists	420	1.8	23.45	48,770
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	350	2.7	19.02	39,560
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	130	1.3	20.88	43,430
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	900	2.6	25.81	53,680
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	2.0	20.96	43,590
Prepress technicians and workers	150	7.6	20.00	41,590
Printing press operators	460	3.7	22.80	47,420
Print binding and finishing workers	150	4.8	19.00	39,510
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	180	1.2	16.10	33,480
Sewing machine operators	160	1.7	20.98	43,650
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	60	0.8	22.34	46,470
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	90	2.6	21.48	44,680
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	170	3.4	17.66	36,730
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	70	0.8	31.78	66,100
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	40	0.4	24.81	51,610
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	240	2.7	25.91	53,900
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	140	3.2	22.87	47,560
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	1.8	26.13	54,350
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,000	2.1	23.64	49,160
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,020	3.4	21.05	43,790
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	400	3.2	24.07	50,060
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	730	4.8	27.21	56,590
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	60	2.7	30.48	63,400
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	650	8.3	26.00	54,080
Helpers--production workers	240	1.6	21.65	45,020
Production workers, all other	340	1.7	17.91	37,260
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_11540.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.