Workers in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.90 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 ($64.17), legal ($48.60), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($48.20). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.08), personal care and service ($17.38), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($18.06). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Green Bay area included production (12.0 percent), office and administrative support (11.7 percent), and transportation and material moving (10.0 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.6 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.1 percent).

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Green Bay had 20,600 jobs in production, accounting for 12.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.7-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $24.40, compared to the national wage of $24.08.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,920), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,830), and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (1,710). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were power plant operators ($39.23) and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($35.58). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.81) and bakers ($18.22). (Detailed data for the production occupations are presented in table 1; for a complete listing of detailed occupations available go to https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0024580.)

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 Green Bay area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 12.89 times the national rate in Green Bay, and fiberglass laminators and fabricators, at 12.83 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.04 in Green Bay, 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 Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,864 establishments with a response rate of 69 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 Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Brown County, Kewaunee County, and Oconto 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, Green Bay metropolitan area, May 2024

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	20,600	2.12	24.40	50,750
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,830	2.41	35.58	74,000
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	190	0.67	23.02	47,880
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	280	4.75	26.58	55,290
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators	260	12.83	21.91	45,570
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,920	1.18	22.00	45,770
Bakers	350	1.37	18.22	37,910
Butchers and meat cutters	650	4.17	19.69	40,940
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	200	1.29	18.94	39,400
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders	60	2.59	23.52	48,930
Food batchmakers	1,620	8.50	22.64	47,080
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	120	3.98	(5)	(5)
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	320	1.65	23.62	49,120
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	160	2.06	23.29	48,440
Machinists	500	1.51	27.31	56,810
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	170	1.02	22.17	46,100
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	0.79	22.41	46,610
Tool and die makers	60	0.93	29.12	60,560
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	840	1.79	26.60	55,320
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.86	25.83	53,720
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	3.52	18.72	38,940
Prepress technicians and workers	210	8.31	22.74	47,300
Printing press operators	710	4.39	24.38	50,700
Print binding and finishing workers	390	9.52	19.72	41,030
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	230	1.04	15.81	32,880
Sewing machine operators	160	1.30	22.97	47,770
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	260	2.96	21.36	44,440
Furniture finishers	80	4.97	19.31	40,170
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	1.61	19.81	41,210
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	210	2.92	19.84	41,270
Power plant operators	40	1.29	39.23	81,600
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	130	0.94	31.70	65,940
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	60	0.42	22.79	47,390
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	50	0.88	25.85	53,760
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	460	4.09	27.55	57,300
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	170	3.26	25.30	52,630
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,180	1.80	24.19	50,310
Dental laboratory technicians	110	2.94	22.86	47,560
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,710	4.01	22.10	45,970
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	520	2.93	23.74	49,380
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	480	2.47	26.66	55,450
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	70	2.24	31.55	65,610
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	30	0.83	22.51	46,820
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,390	12.89	28.04	58,330
Helpers--production workers	320	1.71	22.36	46,500
Production workers, all other	250	0.81	18.87	39,250
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0024580. (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. (5) Estimate not released.