Joel Dresang:

Wisconsin’s overall job quality ranked 39th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2003, based on the research released Thursday. The study used government data to define job quality by the average wages paid per industry and occupation.
Compared with the national mix of industries, Wisconsin had smaller shares of workers in fields such as information; finance and insurance; and professional, scientific and technical services, all of which pay higher-than-average wages nationwide, said Tom Rex, associate director of the research center at Arizona State’s W.P. Carey School of Business.