Bartenders job market in Wisconsin
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Wisconsin industry employment tracked close to the U.S. benchmark
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Bartenders in Wisconsin.
Occupation pay
What Bartenders earn in Wisconsin
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
Median annual wage
$23,460Wisconsin- Middle 50% of published wages
- $20,910 – $29,860
- U.S. median annual wage
- $34,340
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Pay around Wisconsin
How median pay varies by metro area
Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Bartenders, compared with the Wisconsin median of $23,460.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI$27,600+17.6% vs. state
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI$25,970+10.7% vs. state
Sheboygan, WI$25,720+9.6% vs. state
Duluth, MN-WI$23,540+0.3% vs. state
Green Bay, WI$23,380−0.3% vs. state
Appleton, WI$23,330−0.6% vs. state
View 9 more published metro areas
Fond du Lac, WI$23,330−0.6% vs. state
Madison, WI$23,210−1.1% vs. state
Kenosha, WI$23,140−1.4% vs. state
La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN$23,130−1.4% vs. state
Oshkosh-Neenah, WI$23,120−1.4% vs. state
Eau Claire, WI$22,990−2.0% vs. state
Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI$22,960−2.1% vs. state
Wausau, WI$22,640−3.5% vs. state
Janesville-Beloit, WI$22,090−5.8% vs. state
Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Wisconsin median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.
Verified snapshot
Market at a Glance
Key changes in Wisconsin’s weighted industry mix.
Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Published coverage: 18,177 represented establishments, 86.02% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for bartenders in Wisconsin
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 11, 2026.
This occupation is more concentrated in the state
Bartenders account for 2.06 times their national share of employment in Wisconsin, according to OEWS May 2025. This is the published location quotient. The state estimate is 29,520 jobs, 3.9% of the national employment estimate for this occupation. It represents 10.04 jobs per thousand jobs in the state's OEWS employment universe. Concentration describes employment share, not current hiring or future growth.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSOEWS employment estimates describe covered wage-and-salary jobs and exclude self-employed workers; location quotients do not measure vacancies or worker demand.
Published median pay is below the U.S. median
A 31.7% difference separates Wisconsin's median annual wage for bartenders from the U.S. median in OEWS May 2025. At $23,460, the state median is below the national figure of $34,340. The estimates describe the middle of each wage distribution, without a living-cost adjustment.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSPay differs widely between metro areas
Published metro pay varies substantially across the 13 comparable areas associated with Wisconsin in OEWS May 2025. Median wages range from $22,090 in Janesville-Beloit, WI to $25,970 in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI; the upper figure is 17.6% higher. Higher nominal pay alone does not account for living costs or job availability.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSMetro estimates may include areas in neighboring states. The comparison covers published metro estimates, not every part of the state.
Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Employment trends
Wisconsin industry employment over time
Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.
- Wisconsin · 2026 Q1+0.3%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark+0.5%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Wisconsin | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | +2.4% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | +1.9% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | +1.9% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | +0.6% | 93.98% |
| 2025 Q2 | +0.3% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | +0.2% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | +0.4% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | +0.3% | 93.11% |
How to read this chart
State trend and national reference
The solid line follows Wisconsin’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.
- Published quarters
- 8
- Earliest quarter
- 2024 Q2
- Latest quarter
- 2026 Q1
- U.S. benchmark
- +0.5%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Bartenders Work
The occupation mix determines which Wisconsin industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leisure and hospitality | 85.9% | +0.4% | 18,177 | $482 |
| Other services | 5.6% | Not published | 13,064 | $891 |
| Manufacturing | 4.9% | -0.9% | 8,601 | $1,513 |
| State and local | 0.9% | -0.7% | 6,325 | $1,175 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 0.9% | Not published | 38,139 | $1,120 |
| Professional and business services | 0.5% | +1.3% | 39,659 | $1,765 |
Which industries are growing?
2 weighted industries are growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Wisconsin employment change are listed.
- Professional and business services+1.3%
- Leisure and hospitality+0.4%
The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.
Current Wisconsin context
Current Wisconsin Market Signals
Statewide indicators for all occupations in Wisconsin. They are not Bartenders demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.
Statewide job postings
Indeed job postings · Wisconsin
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View values: Indeed postings index
| Observation date | Index (Feb 2020 = 100) |
|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2026 | 106.00 |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 105.96 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | 104.98 |
| Aug 14, 2026 | 104.17 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | 104.37 |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 104.75 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 105.24 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 105.73 |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 105.57 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 106.00 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 106.16 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 106.13 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 107.40 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 108.30 |
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
Statewide layoff notices
Statewide layoff-notice filings
Wisconsin statewide8 notices in this source
Notice dates from Aug 5, 2026 to Nov 2, 2026 (UTC), a rolling 90-calendar-day period.
What this means: These are statewide totals from notices dated in this period in Wisconsin’s official tracking system. Reported positions are the counts published in those notices, not a count of people confirmed to have lost their jobs. No employer is identified.
Notices describe planned workforce changes, not confirmed job losses. Notices may be amended or withdrawn. This statewide context is not occupation-specific and does not affect the Job Market Health score. Wisconsin’s state tracking system also records smaller Rapid Response events that fall below federal WARN thresholds, so it is not a list of federal WARN filings only.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development About WARN data
Source last checked
Career context
Related occupations
Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.
Questions answered by this release
Bartenders in Wisconsin FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Bartenders in Wisconsin?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Wisconsin industries weighted to Bartenders changed +0.3% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with +0.5% nationwide.
Are wages for Bartenders rising in Wisconsin?
QCEW does not publish pay for Bartenders in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +2.9% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.
How complete is this Wisconsin industry view?
The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 93.11% of the occupation’s industry mix.
Does this page show current Bartenders openings?
No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.
Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 93.11% · full evidence record
Methodology & Sources
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Bartenders
- SOC code
- 35-3011
- State
- Wisconsin
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- +0.3%State data coverage 93.11%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- +0.5%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -0.2 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- +1.6%State data coverage 93.11%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +2.9%State data coverage 93.98%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/bartenders/wisconsin#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.