The Marshfield area economic results are as follows for First Quarter 1996. Total employment in Wood county expanded by 1,000 jobs and the unemployment rate declined from 5.7 to 5.1 percent since last year. However, there were economic indicators that were not positive. Retailers say that the shopping patterns of consumers have not changed that much over last year, and help wanted advertising plummeted from last year's activity levels. Further unemployment claims were considerably higher than a year ago, given that some of the increase was due to an improved method of data collection. Residential construction fell dramatically from 1995, with almost all categories showing a sharp decline. Lastly, bank deposits fell by approximately 4.3 percent from last year. 

     Table 7 shows that the manufacturing sector has added over 1,000 jobs since last year in Wood county. Likewise the services sector gained about 800 positions during the same period. However, trade, construction, and government payrolls contracted. The amount of the decline in these sectors was approximately 50, 260, and 100 jobs respectively. For Marshfield the CWERB index of employment estimates that local payrolls increased by 2.5 percent. 

     Retailers believe that store traffic and sales were modestly better than a comparable period of a year ago (Table 8). Further, the sentiments being expressed by this panel fell from December marks. The expected sales index was 54 and the store traffic index was 58. Thus, our group of local merchants feels that retail activity will slightly improve in the next three months in the Marshfield area. 

     Help wanted advertising in Marshfield fell sharply from last year (Table 9). The index contracted from 205 to 168, a 37 point drop. This decline in advertising suggests there might be a slowdown in the rate of employment growth. However, the results have implication for a wider geographical area than just Central Wisconsin, because many outside the area firms advertised in the local area in search of qualified workers. Similarly, the U.S. index took a sharp tumble falling from 134 to 82. 

     Table 10 presents public assistance claims on a monthly average basis. New applications are still not available due to the state's change over to a computerized system. However, total caseload figures are new available for Wood county. The total caseload data consists of AFDC, MA and food stamps. Since last year the number of claims has risen by 10.8 percent for the area. 

     Table 11 presents the unemployment claim data for Wood county. The large increases in new claims and total claims of 56 and 32 percent are in part explained by the fact that claims are now filed by telephone to a central office in Madison. This online system has replaced many unemployment offices throughout the state. Thus, as a result of this change, the lag from the time a claim is made to the time it is officially reported by the state has been eliminated. 

     Residential construction as presented in Table 12 shows a noticeable decline in this type of activity. The harsh and long winter of 1996 is a factor in this outcome. The number of permits issued collapsed to just 1 with an estimated value of $140 thousand. Likewise, the number of housing units was just 1. Residential alteration permits fell dramatically from 36 to 25 or 31 percent. However, the estimated value of those alterations rose slightly by 5 percent. 

     Nonresidential construction also came to a near standstill during First Quarter 1996 (Table 13). There was no reported activity in the number of permits issued, and of course their associated value. In contrast to this lack of activity, alteration construction was much above last year's marks. There were 20 permits issued with an estimated value of $874 thousand. 

     The financial statistics for the area are presented in Table 14. Bank deposits in our sample of area institutions fell 4.3 percent from $227 to $217 million. This is a rare occurrence. However, bank lending increased from $189.6 to $209.0 million dollars or 10.2 percent from 1995. 

     Table 15 and Table 16 present Clark county economic data. Manufacturing, services, and construction were lower than last year totals. Only the trade and government sectors were above last year's figures. Total employment in Clark county rose by 4.2 percent and the unemployment rate declined to 8.7 percent from 9.5 percent of last year.