Workers in the Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.17 in May 2024, compared to the nationwide average of $32.66, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Julie Wilson noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($61.59), healthcare practitioners and technical ($49.90), and computer and mathematical ($43.18). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.02), personal care and service ($17.27), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.26). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Eau Claire area included office and administrative support (11.7 percent), transportation and material moving (10.0 percent), and sales and related (9.9 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.5 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent).

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Eau Claire had 9,930 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 11.7 percent of local area employment, compared to the 11.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $22.74, compared to the national wage of $24.12.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (1,680), general office clerks (1,450), and receptionists and information clerks (990). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers ($32.73) and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants ($31.25). At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.45) and receptionists and information clerks ($18.63). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0020740.)

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 2.00 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally. In the Eau Claire area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, receptionists and information clerks were employed at 1.86 times the national rate in Eau Claire, and billing and posting clerks, at 1.55 times the U.S. average. Postal service mail carriers had a location quotient of 1.00 in Eau Claire, 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 530 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 is 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 65.7 percent based on establishments and 65.9 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,206 establishments with a response rate of 72 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 Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Chippewa County and Eau Claire 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 office and administrative support occupations, Eau Claire metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	9,930	0.99	22.74	47,290
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	650	0.79	32.73	68,070
Bill and account collectors	60	0.68	24.34	50,620
Billing and posting clerks	360	1.55	22.80	47,420
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	880	1.10	23.53	48,940
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	60	0.72	26.47	55,060
Procurement clerks	40	1.11	23.04	47,930
Tellers	290	1.52	18.86	39,220
Customer service representatives	1,680	1.11	22.01	45,770
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	40	0.50	26.14	54,360
File clerks	50	1.20	20.87	43,420
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	160	1.09	15.45	32,140
Library assistants, clerical	70	1.49	19.02	39,570
Loan interviewers and clerks	100	1.07	23.17	48,200
New accounts clerks	70	3.52	22.63	47,080
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	60	1.12	23.90	49,710
Receptionists and information clerks	990	1.86	18.63	38,740
Information and record clerks, all other	30	0.38	28.72	59,740
Public safety telecommunicators	50	0.83	26.89	55,930
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	120	1.03	22.38	46,540
Postal service clerks	30	0.72	29.22	60,790
Postal service mail carriers	190	1.00	28.69	59,680
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	60	1.02	29.38	61,120
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	240	1.13	26.45	55,010
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	620	1.30	22.01	45,790
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	110	0.43	31.25	64,990
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	30	0.36	22.17	46,120
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	190	0.41	22.09	45,950
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	840	0.87	22.15	46,070
Data entry keyers	50	0.64	21.04	43,770
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	50	0.37	26.81	55,760
Office clerks, general	1,450	1.04	20.71	43,080
Office and administrative support workers, all other	120	1.08	24.31	50,560
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0020740. (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.