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Two comparisons, both shown. The national basis ranks Iron County against every scored U.S. county — its percentile band above is a relative national standing, not a condition. The in-state basis ranks it against Wisconsin's other counties (rank and percentile only — bands aren't meaningful within a single state). A county can stand out in its own state while sitting mid-pack nationally. Neither is a forecast.

Pillar breakdown — national percentile ranks

What this means for Iron County

Iron County scores 33.5 on the national CAERI basis — 3006th of 3,142 scored U.S. counties, placing it in the Bottom 25% band nationally by percentile, with a low-confidence rating. Within Wisconsin it ranks 66th of 72 counties (9th in-state percentile). The score summarizes how concentrated local employment is in AI-exposed occupations against the economy's measured capacity to adapt; these are relative-standing bands, not a projection of local job change.

Direct occupational exposure stands at the 13th national percentile. The largest concentrations of locally estimated employment in high-exposure occupations are elementary school teachers, except special education, office clerks, general, secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education. The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers under 25 is 0% — well below the state median of 10%; research on AI-era payrolls finds early-career roles in exposed work are where hiring patterns shift first, so this share indicates how soon exposure could be felt, not how large it is.

The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers 55 and over is 43% (well above the state median) — a higher share historically means slower workforce adjustment when industries restructure. Fiscal sensitivity ranks at the 34th state percentile. In Wisconsin the transmission runs through a uniformly taxed property base — the state constitution's uniformity clause bars taxing commercial property at different rates than homes, so softness in commercial values shifts burden across the whole levy — under levy limits tied to net new construction, which constrain how much lost value a community can recapture; and through state shared revenue, 31% of general revenue here (well above the state median). Since 2023, the county and municipal aid appropriation is indexed to state sales-tax collections, so it moves with statewide consumption, not only local conditions. County sales taxes contribute 6% of own-source revenue and track taxable retail activity. Wisconsin local governments levy no local income tax. All county occupation figures on this page are model-based ESTIMATES with the confidence rating shown above.

Largest locally-estimated employment in high-exposure occupations

Across all 172 high-exposure occupations (top quartile of ensemble exposure) with estimated local employment, Iron County has an estimated 360 jobs — 21.0% of county employment — carrying an estimated $21M annual wage bill in high-exposure work. The five largest:

Age structure of exposed-industry employment

Cite this page

Machine-readable: this county's JSON · national dataset download and data dictionary on the methodology page.

Nearby and comparable counties

Juneau Co., WI (in state)Monroe Co., WI (in state)Fond du Lac Co., WI (in state)Pierce Co., ND (similar score)Lawrence Co., IL (similar score)Boyd Co., NE (similar score)

Links point to the economically nearest counties (in-state, and similar national score). County-level geographic adjacency is not part of the public reference data, so proximity here is by rank, not by shared border.

Sources & provenance