The state of Wisconsin has a massive budget deficit this year, which has a direct influence on funding of the UW system. Although I don't have direct knowledge of UW-Eau Claire, I'm guessing that funds are short, making spousals hires difficult.
However, Eau Claire is about an hour from Minneapolis-St. Paul, where there are quite a few colleges and universities. It's not an ideal solution, but it might be worth looking there.
Actually, it's about 80 minutes to St. Paul from Eau Claire, but close enough.
Between Eau Claire and the Cities are UW-Stout and UW-River Falls. Stout is kind of a tech school, but UWRF is a small comprehensive university. There's also Chippewa Valley Technical College (I think that's what it's called) in Eau Claire.
I know the former acting provost at UWRF quite well (she's now provost at one of the other UW schools), and indeed, the budget issues are intense there right now.