Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14

     The Wausau‑Marathon County area economy recorded the following results for first quarter 1994. The unemployment rate edged up by 0.1 of a point to 6.7 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from last year. Meanwhile, total employment added approximately 0.6 of a percent to area payrolls. Better results are to be found in industrial sector employment growth, where payrolls expanded by 3.0 percent from last March. Merchants believe that activity was much improved over last year and forecast even better results next quarter. Help wanted advertising fell for the area. However, the long‑term trend over the past year has been upward. Public assistance claims were lower by 7 for new claims, but the total caseload expanded by 10. Unemployment claim data were also mixed, but here new claims fell by 38 percent and total claims were unchanged from 1993. Construction for housing was generally lower than last year, but nonresidential activity surged, especially in the category of business alteration permits. Lastly, area financial statistics were much above last year's totals. In particular, bank lending exploded by 11 percent.  

     Industrial sector seasonally unadjusted employment grew by a decent 3.0 percent from last year in Marathon County (Table 7). Specifically, services, trade, and government payrolls expanded at 7.4, 6.3, and 6.0 percent respectively. However, the number of manufacturing and construction workers declined by 1.9 and 22.5 percent from March 1993. Overall, employment in the county's industrial sectors rose from 54,800 to 56,460 in Marathon County.  

     Retailer confidence in Table 8 shows how the CWERB's panel of local merchants feel about local economic conditions. The local merchants are very upbeat in their assessment of sales and store traffic for first quarter. Since late 1990, the sentiments of this group have been on a decided upswing. When the CWERB asked them to forecast sales and store traffic three months from now compared to a year ago, the readings were as optimistic as any ever recorded during tire past eight years. Here too, the trend has been upward since late 1990.  

     A barometer of local labor market conditions is the help wanted advertising index (Table 9). Even though this index does not measure part‑time versus full‑time employment opportunities, it is nonetheless a useful gauge of the likely future direction of the area's payrolls. The index fell from 185 to 166, a decline of approximately 10 percent. However, the long‑term trend with this series has been upward since late 1991. For the U.S., the index rose from 98 to 115, a 17 percent increase, signaling that the national economy is showing signs of having an improved labor market.        

     A measure of local family financial distress is public assistance claims. Table 10 shows this quarters results for the Marathon County area on a monthly average basis. New applications fell from 19 to just 12 over the year. Meanwhile though, total caseload rose from 80 to 90 per month, an increase of approximately 13 percent. The total caseload figure has been climbing in the region since early 1993. However, to compare and contrast with the past, the number of cases was around 110 in 1989. Thus, overall, improvement has taken place. 

     Unemployment claim data are another useful indicator of local financial health. Table 11 tells us that new claims on a weekly average basis fell from 609 to 375, a 38 percent contraction in a year over comparison. New claims have been heading downward since first quarter 1993. Total claims were virtually unchanged from a year ago rising by only 1.6 percent. However, the general movement in this series has been downward since late 1991. 

     Residential construction activity in first quarter 1994 was off the pace set in 1993 (Table 12). The difficult weather conditions this winter probably caused a slowdown in this outdoor activity. Residential permits issued, the estimated value of new residential construction, the number of new housing units, and the number of residential alteration permits issued were lower by approximately 7, 9, 24, and 25 percent respectively. Only the estimated value of residential alterations was higher than last year's figure. 

     Nonresidential construction is presented in Table 13 and, as usual, is presented without percentage changes due to the volatile nature of this type of activity. The number of nonresidential permits issued was 4 with an estimated value of $1.3 million. The number of business alterations reached a lofty 42 valued at $2.2 million. 

     Table 14 displays this quarter's results for the financial sector of the local economy. Bank deposits in our sample of regional financial institutions rose sharply by 5.7 percent or almost $41 million. Perhaps difficulties on Wall Street are causing some wary investors to transfer deposit dollars from mutual funds back to area financial institutions. Bank lending quite literally surged in the Wausau community increasing by $63 million or 11 percent from a year ago. This is a good sign, because it portends more economic activity in the future.