Workers in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $24.84 in May 2021, 11 percent below the nationwide average of $28.01, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that, after testing for statistical significance, wages in the local area were lower than their respective national averages in 17 of the 22 major occupational groups, including computer and mathematical; arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media; and life, physical, and social science. Only one group had a significantly higher wage than their respective national average: production.

When compared to the nationwide distribution, Wausau area employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the 22 occupational groups, including production, transportation and material moving, and office and administrative support. Sixteen groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including management, food preparation and serving related, and educational instruction and library. (See table A.)

One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the 22 major occupational categories. Wausau had 11,350 jobs in production, accounting for 16.6 percent of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.0-percent share nationally. The average hourly wage for this occupational group locally was $21.37, significantly above the national wage of $20.71.

Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators (2,060), first-line supervisors of production and operating workers (910), and packaging and filling machine operators and tenders (860). Among the higher-paying jobs in this group were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers and tool and die makers, with mean hourly wages of $30.10 and $27.90, respectively. At the lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($12.04), bakers ($14.67), and sewing machine operators ($14.88). (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_48140.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 Wausau area, above-average concentrations of employment were found in many of the occupations within the production group. For instance, structural metal fabricators and fitters were employed at 12.9 times the national rate in Wausau, and paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders, at 11.4 times the U.S. average. Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers had a location quotient of 1.0 in Wausau, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment shares were similar.

These statistics are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, a federal-state cooperative program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, 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. OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.

The OEWS survey is a cooperative effort between BLS and the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). BLS funds the survey and provides the procedures and technical support, while the State Workforce Agencies collect most of the data. OEWS estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.1 million establishments. Each year, two semiannual panels of approximately 179,000 to 187,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and the other in November. Responses are obtained by Internet or other electronic means, mail, email, telephone, or personal visit. The May 2021 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels collected over a 3-year period: May 2021, November 2020, May 2020, November 2019, May 2019, and November 2018. The unweighted sampled employment of 82 million across all six semiannual panels represents approximately 62 percent of total national employment. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is 67.2 percent based on establishments and 64.5 percent based on weighted sampled employment. The sample in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,001 establishments with a response rate of 73 percent. For more information about OEWS concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm.

A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.

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 Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Marathon County.

For more information

Answers to frequently asked questions about the OEWS data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed information about the OEWS program is available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_doc.htm.

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, Wausau metropolitan area, May 2021

Occupation (1)	Employment		Mean wages
	Level (2)	Location quotient (3)	Hourly	Annual (4)
Production occupations	11,350	2.8	$21.37	$44,460
First-line supervisors of production and operating workers	910	3.0	30.10	62,600
Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishers	130	1.0	19.83	41,240
Structural metal fabricators and fitters	380	12.9	24.66	51,290
Miscellaneous assemblers and fabricators	2,060	3.2	19.69	40,960
Bakers	60	0.6	14.67	30,510
Butchers and meat cutters	70	1.0	17.04	35,450
Food batchmakers	700	9.3	20.13	41,870
Food cooking machine operators and tenders	50	4.1	21.29	44,290
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	430	5.0	19.61	40,780
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	2.3	16.85	35,040
Machinists	300	1.9	22.49	46,780
Tool and die makers	70	2.3	27.90	58,030
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers	650	3.4	23.73	49,360
Plating machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic	80	4.9	16.77	34,890
Printing press operators	100	1.5	22.75	47,330
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers	30	0.4	12.04	25,040
Sewing machine operators	50	1.0	14.88	30,950
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters	110	2.5	18.35	38,170
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood	180	8.4	17.56	36,530
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and tenders, except sawing	300	9.2	19.05	39,620
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators	60	1.0	26.30	54,700
Separating, filtering, clarifying, precipitating, and still machine setters, operators, and tenders	60	2.7	23.80	49,510
Grinding and polishing workers, hand	50	6.5	16.74	34,820
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders	200	3.9	23.96	49,830
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	190	7.1	21.34	44,380
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	460	1.7	21.82	45,380
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	860	5.0	19.92	41,420
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders	360	5.1	20.00	41,600
Computer numerically controlled tool operators	330	4.3	22.89	47,610
Computer numerically controlled tool programmers	30	2.7	24.31	50,570
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders	40	6.3	20.86	43,380
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and plastic	90	5.0	20.23	42,080
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	480	11.4	24.61	51,190
Helpers--production workers	290	3.0	20.04	41,680
Production workers, all other	120	1.2	15.86	33,000
Footnotes: (1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Wausau, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_48140.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.