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News Release Information

25-643-CHI
Thursday, May 08, 2025

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in Eau Claire — May 2024

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.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the Eau Claire metropolitan area, May 2024
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States Eau Claire United States Eau Claire

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 32.66 28.17

Management

7.1 4.5 68.15 61.59

Business and financial operations

6.7 5.2 45.04 38.79

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.3 56.16 43.18

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.4 49.99 40.82

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.5 43.12 38.40

Community and social service

1.7 1.8 30.31 29.61

Legal

0.8 0.4 66.19 43.11

Educational instruction and library

5.8 5.6 31.69 28.03

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.1 37.04 24.50

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.2 7.5 50.59 49.90

Healthcare support

4.8 6.3 19.06 18.54

Protective service

2.4 1.6 29.33 30.01

Food preparation and serving related

8.8 9.3 17.32 15.02

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 2.9 19.01 18.26

Personal care and service

2.0 1.8 18.95 17.27

Sales and related

8.7 9.9 26.00 23.19

Office and administrative support

11.8 11.7 24.12 22.74

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.2 20.06 21.52

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.7 30.73 30.95

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.0 29.63 28.66

Production

5.7 8.4 24.08 23.90

Transportation and material moving

8.9 10.0 23.44 21.72

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.

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

Effective with the May 2024 OEWS news release, the OEWS program has implemented new metropolitan area definitions based on the 2020 decennial census and delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 23-01. This news release does not include data for Colorado and its areas because of quality concerns with Colorado’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. See the national OEWS news release for more information.


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.

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, May 08, 2025