OEA - West Central Workforce Development Area (WDA)

Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix Counties

Contact the regional analyst: Scott Hodek

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County Profiles contains detailed labor market information for individual counties within the state.

Regional Projections

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About the West Central WDA

The West Central Wisconsin region is composed of 9 counties: Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix. The region covers over4.5 million acres, roughly 13 percent of the land surface in the state. Over 2.9 million acres are in farms and another 76,500 acres are under water. Four counties border Minnesota and two of them, Pierce and St. Croix, are part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

The regional economy ranges from food processing to electronics manufacturing, from wholesale distribution to retail sales, from higher education to health care. The turkey processing facility in Barron County is one the region's largest employers. Electronics assembly plants in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties are also on the list. A Wal-Mart distribution center is located in Dunn County, while Menard's headquarters is in Eau Claire. Three state universities are in the region, one in Eau Claire County, one in Dunn County and another in Pierce County. The total number of payroll jobs with all industries in the region in 2000 was 178,035.

The estimated population from the 2000 census was 415,206, an increase of 12.0 percent since 1990. Since 2000 the population increased 3.0 percent to 427,669 in 2002. Nearly two-thirds of the increase in population since 1990 has been from people relocating to the area.

In 2002, the region's labor force of 233,600 included 219,900 employed residents. The unemployment rate for West Central Wisconsin in 2002 of 5.9 percent is an increase from the previous year and is the highest annual average unemployment rate since 1992.

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Updated: June 03, 2009
Office of Economic Advisors