City of La Crosse careers

Where the Black River meets the Mississippi, La Crosse fills the valley floor: 52,680 residents at the 2020 census, settled on prairie between the rivers and the tall bluffs that wall the valley in. Nathan Myrick settled the spot in 1841, the city was legally incorporated on March 14, 1856, and the geography that recommended it then still defines it now.

Two things shape the employer today. First, it's a full-service municipality, with departments spanning Police, Fire, Engineering, Finance, Planning and Development, Utilities, and a combined Parks, Recreation, and Forestry operation that reflects how much riverfront and blufftop land the city keeps public. Second, it's a college town three times over: the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Viterbo University, and Western Technical College together bring roughly 20,000 students, which keeps the labor market young and the city's recreation and cultural services in steady, semester-shaped demand. An elected mayor heads the government, with the council alongside. The combination is uncommon for a city this size: broad services and student-town energy in a compact river valley, with the city government hiring for everything from sworn public safety to forestry crews under one roof, and the rivers themselves setting the terms of the work.