Workers in the Oshkosh-Neenah, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $31.15 in May 2025, compared to the nationwide average of $33.54, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that higher paying major occupational groups included management ($66.54), legal ($55.91), and healthcare practitioners and technical ($52.44). Lower paying occupations included food preparation and serving related ($15.60), personal care and service ($18.80), healthcare support ($19.13), and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance ($19.27). (See table A.)

Occupational groups with the highest employment shares in the Oshkosh area included production (14.2 percent), office and administrative support (11.5 percent), and transportation and material moving (8.4 percent). Major occupational groups on the lower end of local employment included legal (0.4 percent); life, physical, and social science (0.7 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. Oshkosh had 13,350 jobs in production, accounting for 14.2 percent of local area employment, compared to the 5.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $26.99, compared to the national wage of $24.81.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,040); paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders (1,670); and first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (1,040). Among the higher paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers ($36.71), computer numerically controlled tool programmers ($32.73), and engine and other machine assemblers ($32.24). At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($17.02) and bakers ($17.87). (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/0036780/2025.)

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 Oshkosh 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 28.89 times the national rate in Oshkosh, and extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic, at 12.30 times the U.S. average. Laundry and dry-cleaning workers had a location quotient of 1.19 in Oshkosh, 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 66.2 percent based on establishments and 67.2 percent based on weighted sampled employment. Sample sizes and response rates by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area are available on the Additional OEWS data sets page.

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 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Winnebago 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

Table 1. Employment and wage data for production occupations, Oshkosh metropolitan area, May 2025

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages ($)
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	13,350	2.58	26.99	56,140
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	1,040	2.56	36.71	76,360
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	610	4.07	23.90	49,700
Engine and other machine assemblers	90	4.19	32.24	67,060
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	40	1.33	26.55	55,210
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,040	2.41	26.56	55,250
Bakers	90	0.65	17.87	37,170
Butchers and meat cutters	70	0.81	19.78	41,140
Food batchmakers	120	1.09	23.50	48,880
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	450	12.30	29.77	61,930
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	560	5.38	28.21	58,680
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	140	3.38	25.49	53,010
Machinists	340	1.97	27.83	57,890
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	260	2.88	23.45	48,780
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	110	1.52	27.67	57,550
Tool and die makers	70	1.91	30.85	64,160
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	540	2.15	28.61	59,510
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters, operators, and tenders	70	3.78	26.77	55,690
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	50	2.48	27.99	58,220
Prepress technicians and workers	180	12.74	27.50	57,210
Printing press operators	610	7.06	26.75	55,630
Print binding and finishing workers	240	12.23	20.76	43,180
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	140	1.19	17.02	35,410
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	40	0.92	23.60	49,090
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	50	1.38	21.31	44,320
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	80	1.02	31.22	64,930
Chemical equipment operators and tenders	70	0.89	25.74	53,550
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	30	0.93	24.63	51,230
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	160	2.79	28.43	59,140
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	80	3.13	25.55	53,150
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders	100	2.83	27.65	57,510
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	620	1.71	26.89	55,920
Dental laboratory technicians	(5)	(5)	26.25	54,600
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	280	1.22	22.07	45,910
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	580	6.07	27.07	56,310
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	200	1.97	27.09	56,340
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	30	1.95	32.73	68,070
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	70	10.44	26.31	54,720
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	1,670	28.89	27.42	57,040
Helpers--production workers	290	2.93	24.79	51,570
Production workers, all other	150	0.99	21.28	44,260
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Oshkosh-Neenah, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/area/0036780/2025. (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.