Public And Private Employment

• The difference between 100% and the proportions shown in the graph is the proportion of jobs in the private sector over this time period.
• In Wisconsin, employment in the public sector has consistently accounted for slightly more than 12% of all jobs in the state over the 2010 to 2022 period.  So, a bit less than 88% of jobs in Wisconsin are in the private sector.
• Public sector employment is substantially higher in Pierce (due to the presence of the UW-River Falls) and Burnett counties.
• Polk County is the only one in the region that had a lower proportion of public-sector employees compared to the state average in 2022.
   

• Public sector employment in Minnesota declined slightly from just above 12% from 2009 to 2014 to just below that proportion between 2015 and 2019, but has seen an uptick since 2020.
• Washington County has consistently had a slightly higher proportion of its workforce in the public sector than in Minnesota as a whole.
• Chisago County has gone from having a slightly lower to a slightly higher proportion of its workforce in the public sector over the 2009 to 2022 period.

• The proportion of the workforce in a majority of St. Croix River Valley counties was about 12%.
• Pierce (15.2%) and Burnett (16.1%) are more dependent on public sector employment.
• In 2022, for the first time in 2009-2022 time period, Minnesota had a higher proportion of public-sector employees (12.5%) than Wisconsin (12.4%).

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