The La Crosse regional economy has been humming for the better part of a decade, at least according to some employment figures. A recent employment report, for example, found there were about 2,000 job vacancies in La Crosse County, which is roughly equal to the number of unemployed there.
During the 1990s, the La Crosse region saw employment surge by 20 percent—50 percent higher than the national average. But surprisingly, the region pulled up the rear compared with other metro regions in the state; even the statewide average for job growth was a robust 21 percent, according to a separate report by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The report also found that average wages lagged behind other metro areas; for example, about 56 percent of La Crosse County government workers earned $25,000 or more, while the metro average statewide was 84 percent.
—Ronald A. Wirtz
