Workers in the Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.55 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 ($58.89), healthcare practitioners and technical ($51.22), and legal ($46.83). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.52), personal care and service ($16.81), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.44). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Eau Claire area included office and administrative support (12.3 percent), transportation and material moving (10.0 percent), and sales and related (9.5 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). (See table A.)

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 10,410 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.3 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.69, compared to the national wage of $23.05.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the office and administrative support group included customer service representatives (1,790) and office clerks, general (1,330). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers and executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, with mean hourly wages of $32.05 and $29.60, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.18) and data entry keyers ($17.50). (Detailed data for the office and administrative support occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_20740.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 Eau Claire area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, insurance claims and policy processing clerks were employed at 2.1 times the national rate in Eau Claire, and receptionists and information clerks, at 1.8 times the U.S. average. Postal service mail carriers had a location quotient of 1.0 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 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 Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,198 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 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Office and administrative support occupations	10,410	1.0	21.69	45,120
First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers	780	0.9	32.05	66,670
Bill and account collectors	90	0.8	21.82	45,380
Billing and posting clerks	310	1.3	22.00	45,760
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	970	1.2	22.20	46,180
Payroll and timekeeping clerks	70	0.8	25.44	52,910
Procurement clerks	40	1.0	22.45	46,690
Tellers	310	1.6	18.33	38,120
Court, municipal, and license clerks	40	0.4	24.61	51,180
Customer service representatives	1,790	1.1	20.50	42,640
Eligibility interviewers, government programs	60	0.7	24.76	51,490
File clerks	60	1.4	19.35	40,240
Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks	170	1.1	15.18	31,580
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan	30	0.4	19.90	41,390
Library assistants, clerical	60	1.2	17.74	36,890
Loan interviewers and clerks	170	1.5	21.32	44,350
New accounts clerks	30	1.4	22.16	46,100
Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping	50	1.0	21.77	45,280
Receptionists and information clerks	980	1.8	18.01	37,450
Information and record clerks, all other	50	0.6	23.40	48,660
Public safety telecommunicators	40	0.8	24.20	50,340
Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance	100	0.9	21.10	43,890
Postal service clerks	30	0.7	28.58	59,450
Postal service mail carriers	190	1.0	28.07	58,380
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators	70	1.1	28.04	58,320
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	210	1.0	25.30	52,610
Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks	510	1.1	20.32	42,270
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants	120	0.4	29.60	61,570
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants	40	0.5	21.28	44,270
Medical secretaries and administrative assistants	190	0.5	20.98	43,640
Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive	840	0.8	20.87	43,410
Data entry keyers	40	0.5	17.50	36,390
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks	280	2.1	19.90	41,390
Office clerks, general	1,330	1.0	19.92	41,440
Office and administrative support workers, all other	120	1.3	22.07	45,900
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Eau Claire, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_20740.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.