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News Release Information

24-1286-CHI
Monday, July 22, 2024

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

Occupational Employment and Wages in La Crosse-Onalaska — May 2023

Workers in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $28.63 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 ($60.52), healthcare practitioners and technical ($56.93), and architecture and engineering ($42.81). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($14.72), personal care and service ($16.15), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($17.70). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment in the La Crosse area included office and administrative support (12.0 percent), transportation and material moving (10.4 percent), and food preparation and serving related (9.7 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.8 percent); and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.2 percent). (See table A.)

Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the La Crosse metropolitan area, May 2023
Major occupational group Percent of total employment Mean hourly wage ($)
United States La Crosse United States La Crosse

Total, all occupations

100.0 100.0 31.48 28.63

Management

6.9 4.3 66.23 60.52

Business and financial operations

6.6 5.3 43.55 37.28

Computer and mathematical

3.4 2.4 54.39 41.92

Architecture and engineering

1.7 1.4 47.64 42.81

Life, physical, and social science

0.9 0.8 42.24 39.04

Community and social service

1.6 1.9 28.36 27.10

Legal

0.8 0.4 64.34 38.97

Educational instruction and library

5.8 6.0 31.92 28.11

Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media

1.4 1.2 36.31 24.19

Healthcare practitioners and technical

6.1 8.8 49.07 56.93

Healthcare support

4.7 4.9 18.37 18.90

Protective service

2.3 1.4 27.74 24.56

Food preparation and serving related

8.7 9.7 16.58 14.72

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance

2.9 3.0 18.43 17.70

Personal care and service

2.0 2.0 18.48 16.15

Sales and related

8.8 8.9 25.62 22.72

Office and administrative support

12.2 12.0 23.05 21.63

Farming, fishing, and forestry

0.3 0.1 19.22 19.35

Construction and extraction

4.1 3.3 29.57 30.51

Installation, maintenance, and repair

3.9 4.1 28.13 27.43

Production

5.8 7.8 22.90 22.62

Transportation and material moving

9.1 10.4 22.45 23.29

One occupational group—office and administrative support—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. La Crosse had 8,980 jobs in office and administrative support, accounting for 12.0 percent of local area employment, compared to the 12.2-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.63, 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 (1,280) and office clerks, general (1,150). 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 $31.78 and $29.82, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks ($15.10) and couriers and messengers ($16.50). (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_29100.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 La Crosse area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in some of the occupations within the office and administrative support group. For instance, loan interviewers and clerks were employed at 1.9 times the national rate in La Crosse, and tellers, at 1.7 times the U.S. average. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks had a location quotient of 1.0 in La Crosse, 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, and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic 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 La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,142 establishments with a response rate of 70 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 La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Houston County MN, and La Crosse County, WI.

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, La Crosse metropolitan area, May 2023
Occupation (1) Employment Mean wages ($)
Level (2) Location quotient (3) Hourly Annual (4)

Office and administrative support occupations

8,980 1.0 21.63 44,990

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

600 0.8 31.78 66,100

Bill and account collectors

100 1.0 20.13 41,880

Billing and posting clerks

280 1.3 22.87 47,570

Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks

760 1.0 22.43 46,650

Payroll and timekeeping clerks

90 1.2 22.97 47,790

Procurement clerks

40 1.3 21.79 45,330

Tellers

290 1.7 17.97 37,380

Court, municipal, and license clerks

50 0.6 23.09 48,020

Customer service representatives

1,280 0.9 20.48 42,600

Eligibility interviewers, government programs

50 0.7 24.02 49,960

File clerks

40 1.0 20.09 41,780

Hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks

160 1.3 15.10 31,420

Interviewers, except eligibility and loan

50 0.6 20.81 43,270

Library assistants, clerical

40 1.0 18.39 38,240

Loan interviewers and clerks

190 1.9 21.19 44,080

New accounts clerks

30 1.6 20.92 43,510

Human resources assistants, except payroll and timekeeping

60 1.3 20.51 42,660

Receptionists and information clerks

710 1.4 18.11 37,660

Information and record clerks, all other

70 0.9 17.79 36,990

Couriers and messengers

60 1.7 16.50 34,330

Dispatchers, except police, fire, and ambulance

140 1.4 25.10 52,200

Postal service mail carriers

150 0.9 27.97 58,170

Production, planning, and expediting clerks

300 1.5 23.97 49,870

Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks

300 0.7 20.63 42,910

Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

110 0.5 29.82 62,020

Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

430 1.2 21.40 44,520

Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

790 0.9 20.80 43,250

Data entry keyers

80 1.1 18.11 37,680

Insurance claims and policy processing clerks

140 1.1 22.16 46,080

Office clerks, general

1,150 0.9 19.30 40,150

Office and administrative support workers, all other

200 2.4 22.45 46,690

Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_29100.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.

 

Last Modified Date: Monday, July 22, 2024