Workforce Development Area Directory

WDA 7 - Northwest

Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor and Washburn Counties

Board Web Directory:

Northwest Workforce Development Board

Labor Market Economist:

Thomas (Tom) Michels

email or call (715) 679-5611

Tom Michels is a Labor Market Economist with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development for the 10 Northwest counties of Wisconsin. Thomas has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Thomas lives in Superior Wisconsin with his wife and three kids.

Description

The Northwest Wisconsin region is composed of 10 counties; Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor and Washburn. The region covers over 7 million acres, roughly 19 percent of the land surface in the state. Nearly 4.8 million acres are covered with forests, another 247,000 acres are under water and over a million acres are in farms. Roughly 114,000 acres are in the region's four Chippewa reservations: Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Red Cliff, and St. Croix. The regional economy is as diverse as the geography it covers.

The economies range from manufacturing to tourism and recreation to transportation and shipping to health services. The counties of Burnett, Price, Rusk, and Taylor have a large manufacturing base; Bayfield, Iron, and Sawyer cater to tourism traffic; Ashland supplies regional health services; Douglas is a transportation spur and retail provider; and Washburn is central for many government agencies. Together the employers in all industries in the region provided more than 64,500 jobs in 2022.

In 2022, the region's labor force of 85,904 included 82,479 employed residents. The unemployment rate for Northwest Wisconsin in 2022 of 4.0 percent is down from the Great Recession high of 10.2 percent rate in 2009.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Wisconsin's Northwest WDA has 10,615 sq. miles in land area and a population density of 17 people per square mile. From 2012 to 2022, WDA 7's population increased by 2.1%.

In 2022, the WDA average household size was 2.12 people compared to an average family size of 2.65 people. WDA 7 has a total of 117* K-12 public schools, 17 private K-12 schools, 10 post-secondary schools, including 4 WI Tech College Campuses. The average ACT score, in 2022, was 18.25, which is lower than the State's average of 19.27.*

In 2022, education & health services was the largest of the 11 major industrial sectors within WDA 7 with an average annual wage of $47,416. ** Per capita income grew by 19.81% between 2011 and 2021 (adjusted for inflation). ***

Source: U.S. Census Bureau
* Source: DPI
**Source: DWD, BWT, LMI, QCEW
***Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

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State Information

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