Workers in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $27.91 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 ($62.28), healthcare practitioners and technical ($49.47), and legal ($46.48). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.63), personal care and service ($16.89), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.34). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the Green Bay area included office and administrative support (12.6 percent), production (12.3 percent), and transportation and material moving (10.1 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). (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Green Bay had 21,100 jobs in production, accounting for 12.3 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.8-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $23.01, compared to the national wage of $22.90.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (1,850), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,820), and miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (1,810). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were power plant operators and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, with mean hourly wages of $40.80 and $33.24, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($15.36) and bakers ($16.42). (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_24580.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 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 12.0 times the national rate in Green Bay, and prepress technicians and workers, at 8.7 times the U.S. average. Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers had a location quotient of 1.0 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 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 Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,864 establishments with a response rate of 67 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 2023

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	21,100	2.1	23.01	47,850
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,820	2.4	33.24	69,130
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	300	1.0	19.87	41,330
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	230	3.6	25.63	53,310
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	1,810	1.1	19.89	41,360
Bakers	290	1.2	16.42	34,160
Butchers and meat cutters	(5)	(5)	19.35	40,240
Meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers	470	3.0	18.42	38,320
Food batchmakers	1,520	7.9	20.78	43,220
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	150	4.4	(5)	(5)
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	40	0.5	21.84	45,430
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	370	1.8	22.25	46,280
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	190	2.3	21.68	45,090
Machinists	350	1.1	24.45	50,850
Metal-refining furnace operators and tenders	60	2.4	26.65	55,430
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	220	1.2	20.28	42,170
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	100	0.7	23.45	48,770
Tool and die makers	70	1.0	28.03	58,300
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	950	2.0	25.31	52,640
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	40	1.2	23.77	49,430
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	120	3.3	17.76	36,930
Prepress technicians and workers	230	8.7	22.18	46,140
Printing press operators	880	5.1	24.02	49,970
Print binding and finishing workers	290	6.6	18.91	39,340
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	240	1.2	15.36	31,950
Sewing machine operators	170	1.3	19.68	40,930
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	350	3.5	20.61	42,860
Furniture finishers	90	5.8	19.40	40,350
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	80	1.7	19.03	39,590
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	240	3.5	19.18	39,880
Power plant operators	50	1.4	40.80	84,860
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	120	0.9	30.35	63,120
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	50	0.4	19.78	41,150
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	1.0	23.88	49,670
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	40	2.6	18.05	37,550
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	450	3.8	25.54	53,130
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	210	3.6	24.87	51,730
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	90	1.4	25.11	52,240
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	1,110	1.7	22.89	47,600
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers	30	1.3	21.85	45,440
Dental laboratory technicians	90	2.4	21.43	44,580
Ophthalmic laboratory technicians	140	6.8	20.82	43,300
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	1,850	4.4	20.58	42,810
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	400	2.3	22.74	47,300
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	610	2.9	26.13	54,350
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	90	3.0	29.96	62,310
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	40	1.0	21.08	43,850
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,310	12.0	26.58	55,290
Helpers--production workers	240	1.2	22.14	46,050
Production workers, all other	420	1.5	16.81	34,950
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Green Bay, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_24580.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. (5) Estimate not released.