World-Class Workforce

Let’s drive your business with incredible talent.

Having access to the right people is the key to growing your business. Wisconsin has the talent pool you need today and is actively developing your workforce of tomorrow. We possess a unique combination of training programs; innovative partnerships among educators, employers, and economic developers; and funding that provides opportunities for Wisconsin’s workforce to develop a diverse range of career skills. These factors, plus a top-notch educational system and a net inflow of people in their prime working years, add up to a continuous pipeline of talent.

Here, you’ll find highlights on education, training, skills, and industry experience that makes the workforce you’ll find in Wisconsin second to none.

Wisconsin ranks in the nation’s top 10 for quality of health care, with eight of our more than 140 hospitals receiving national recognition. Behind that success are more than 415,000 highly skilled medical professionals, making health care one of Wisconsin’s largest industries.

Manufacturing is in Wisconsin’s DNA. More than 480,000 Wisconsinites work in this industry, making us number one in the nation for manufacturing employment concentration. Behind the scenes is a robust technical college system, working in lockstep with employers to ensure graduates hit the workforce equipped with skills and experience in emerging technologies. In addition, about 5,000 engineers graduate annually from our public and private universities. This creates a continuous talent pool for manufacturers in leading industries such as biohealth; energy, power, and controls; food and beverage processing; and water technology.

Wisconsin is experiencing a tech boom—emerging as a leader in biohealth, electric vehicles, aerospace, water tech, video game development, and information technology. Helping to fuel this boom is billions in academic research and development, propelled by partnerships between academic technology leadership and private industry, and brought to life by our manufacturing prowess. This rare synergy led to Wisconsin’s biohealth sector gaining national recognition as a Regional Technology Hub in 2023. It has attracted Fortune 500 tech firms such as Google and Microsoft and inspired the nation’s largest tech migration in 2020.

Wisconsin has a rich agricultural heritage, leading the nation in the production of cheese, ginseng, cranberries, and more. Between on-farm production and food processing, this industry comprises more than 435,000 jobs and employs nearly 12% of Wisconsin’s workforce. Our know-how, dedication to quality, and manufacturing strength, combined with our culture of innovation and having one of the largest research establishments in the nation, mean we continue to find better ways of growing, processing, and packaging. It’s what’s drawn eight of the 10 largest food companies in the world to Wisconsin and earned us international honors for our cheese.

With more than 17.1 million acres of forest, Wisconsin is rooted in forestry and forest products. The leading employer in eight Wisconsin counties, this industry contributes 58,000 jobs and an annual output of $24.2 billion. For every 10 jobs in forest products, an additional 12 jobs are created in adjacent industries, leading to an annual gross output of $37.1 billion. In addition, collaborations between our renowned Universities of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College System are positioning our forestry industry for the future by driving innovation, sustainable practices, and stewardship.