The Stevens Point economic indicators for First Quarter 1997 show that steady improvement has taken place in numerous measures of activity. Highlights of this report are as follows. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent from 5.3 percent from a year ago, and total employment expanded by about 1.0 percent. Job growth in the future will probably be constrained In Wisconsin and locally due to an ever tightening labor market. However, industrial sector payrolls did manage to expand by a more robust 2.3 percent over the current period.
 

     The Stevens Point‑Portage county industrial sectors grew by a solid 2.3 percent from March 1996 (Table 7). Approximately 700 total jobs were created in the local area. Manufacturing added 3.8 percent to its total from last year while the services and government sectors expanded at around 3.0 percent over the same time period. Surprisingly, trade and construction employment did not change over the course of the year.
 

     Retailer confidence appears to have rebounded somewhat from last quarter. Table 8 shows that our kcal merchants believe that total sales and store traffic are measurably above the levels of a year ago. An even greater surge in optimism can be found on the part of merchants when it comes to expected sales and store traffic. The readings of near 70 for both categories indicate a high degree of confidence with regard to the local retail scene. 
 

     Help wanted advertising is a key barometer of labor market conditions for the local area (Table 9). The index for the Stevens Point and surrounding area remains at an elevated level. Moreover, the index rose by approximately 9.0 percent from March of 1996. Similarly, the U.S. help wanted advertising climbed by almost 9.0 percent over the same period. As mentioned earlier labor shortages in the U.S. and especially in Wisconsin will most likely limit the amount of future payroll expansions. 

     Public assistance claims on a monthly average basis rose by 15. However, the total caseload figure has declined by about 134 over the past twelve months. Another measure of local family financial distress is unemployment claims data. Here we see that new claims on a weekly average basis rose by 11 from March 1996. Further, total claims expanded by 21 cases over the same period. Thus Table 10 and Table 11 indicate there has been an increase in family financial pressure over the year. 

     Residential construction data in Table 12 presents a mixed picture for this quarter. The number of residential permits Issued was stable from last year but the estimated value rose by approximately 10.0 percent. The number of housing units rose by 17.9 percent for the period. However, we see that alteration activity was lower by 19.6 percent and the estimated value of the alterations activity was down by 33.9 percent. This is one of the rare times in the past number of years where alteration activity has contracted from the previous period. 

     The volatile nonresidential construction sector is depicted in Table 13. Big swings in the totals can occur because of the existence or absence of one project. Therefore, no percentage changes are given. The number of permits for First Quarter was 6 with an estimated value of $773 thousand. There were 28 alteration permits issued during the same period with an estimated value of $2.4 million. The totals for First Quarter were somewhat lower than the historic norms for these categories. 

     Table 14 presents financial statistics for Portage county. Our sample of local financial institutions has been modified. In other words an institution has been added and another deleted from the survey. The data for the deleted institution are no longer available for just the local area. Thus a change was warranted to better reflect local economic conditions. Using our new sample as a basis of comparison we see that bank lending has expanded by about $4 million or 1.4 percent from last year. Meanwhile, lending activity expanded by approximately $20 million dollars or 6.8 percent over the same period.