Most indicators of economic performance are at a better level this year than last.  An exception to this statement is the rise in the county's seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate.  However, this increase is tempered by the fact that total employment is estimated to have increased by 7.5 percent, and industrial sector employment by nearly 5 percent.

     Industrial sector employment growth was very robust for the greater Wausau area (Table 7).  It is estimated that industrial sector employment grew by 2,600 positions or 4.4 percent from a year ago.  Individually, services and trade grew 1,000 and 1,100 positions a piece.  Manufacturing and construction each added 200 net new jobs.  Lastly, government payrolls are estimated to have grown by 100 jobs.

     Merchants were very upbeat concerning the level of retail activity in First Quarter 2000 (Table 8).  Store traffic and sales were judged to be much higher than at the same time a year ago.  When asked to forecast future retail activity, this group felt that sales and store traffic would be even higher than last year's robust level of activity.

     Help wanted advertising remains at an elevated level in the Wausau area.  As Table 9 indicates, the index for March was at 240.  This represents a 77-point climb from last year, or a gain of 47 percent in local job advertising.  It is clear that there are firms from all over the state advertising in the Wausau area.  Thus, the labor market continues to be strong for workers.

     Table 10 shows that there has been an increase in the number of new unemployment claims.  New claims on a weekly average basis rose from 418 to 524, or 25.4 percent from 1999.  Likewise, total claims on a weekly average basis rose from 2,510 to 2,707 or 7.8 percent.  Layoffs at several area employers have helped to push these numbers upwards.  If there is a silver lining in this situation it is that these people will be entering a tight labor market.  This should greatly enhance the success rate of their job search.

     Residential construction, while generally lower than a year ago, remains at elevated levels (Table 11).  The number of permits issued was 42 in First Quarter 2000 and the estimated value was $5.9 million.  The number of actual housing units declined from 56 to 46 over the year.  Residential alteration permits also declined over the period falling from 185 to 176.  Lastly, the estimated value of this alteration activity was $1.3 million, which represents an overall decline of 3.9 percent.

     Nonresidential construction, as usual, is presented without percentage changes due to the irregular nature of this kind of activity (Table 12).  The number of permits issued was 4 and the associated value was $1.02 million.  A great deal of alteration activity took place during First Quarter 2000.  A total of 46 permits were issued with an estimated value of $22.4 million.  Large projects include additions to the local hospital and newspaper.

     Financial statistics for the Wausau area, which are given in Table 13 shows that bank deposits contracted from $2.2 billion to $2.1 billion over the period.  It is a rare occurrence to see a decline in deposits.  Bank lending, however, reached new heights.  Lending rose from $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion over the past 12 months, or an increase of 12.5 percent.