Industrial activity is concentrated in the southeast, especially the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Milwaukee has lost some of its luster as a brewery center; Miller and Pabst still have breweries there, but Schlitz beer is no longer made in Wisconsin, and Blatz and Old Style are brewed by G. Heileman in La Crosse.
Of the state's three biggest paper and lumber products firms, Consolidated Paper is located in Wisconsin Rapids, and Fort Howard Paper in Green Bay. Johnson & Son (wax products) and J. I. Case (agricultural equipment), the latter a subsidiary of Tenneco, are in Racine. Oscar Mayer (meat-packing and food products), located in Madison, is now a subsidiary of General Foods. Parker Pen Co. is in Janesville.
In 1997, the total value of shipments for manufactured goods in Wisconsin was $119 billion. Wisconsin is headquarters for eight Fortune 500 companies: Northwestern Mutual Life, Johnson Controls, Manpower, Case, American Family Insurance Group, Aid Association for Lutherans, Harnischfeger Industrial, and Roundy's.
Earnings of persons employed in Wisconsin increased from $90.3 billion in 1997 to $96 billion in 1998, an increase of 6.4%. The largest industries in 1998 were services, 23.1% of earnings; durable goods manufacturing, 17.7%; and state and local government, 11.6%. Of the industries that accounted for at least 5% of earnings in 1998, the slowest growing from 1997 to 1998 was state and local government, which increased 4.0%; the fastest was wholesale trade (6.2% of earnings in 1998), which increased 8.0%.