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Central Wisconsin
The central Wisconsin economy continues to move forward despite a few bumps along the way.
In summary: unemployment rates were generally lower than year ago; total
employment, was for the most part lower; nonfarm employment registered modest
gains; sales tax collections were up slightly in all three counties; and
business leaders were fairly upbeat about the direction of the regional
economy and their particular industry.
There is a substantial amount of good news to
report in Table 2. Though Marathon
County experienced an increase, it still has the lowest unemployment rate in
the area. All other reporting areas saw a marked decline in their rates of
unemployment. Portage, Marathon, and
Wood counties rates now stand at 4.8, 4.3, and 5.5 percent respectively. This
gives central Wisconsin a weighted unemployment rate of just 4.7 percent, down
from 5.1 percent from a year ago. The state and nation also experienced
declines in their rates, 4.8 and 5.2 percent respectively.
Total employment is estimated by the state by
the means of a household survey (Table 3). Employment
in Portage County is estimated to have risen from 37.1 to 38.4 thousand, or by 3.5
percent. In contrast, Marathon and Wood
Counties employment levels are estimated to have declined by 3.7 and 4.2 percent
respectively. Similarly, when compared to employment levels achieved in 2004,
Wisconsin's employment figure is down
by 12,000 positions, or about 0.4 percent.
Modestly
better employment news comes from the survey of business firms. These data
are used to estimate total nonfarm employment. In Table 4,
total nonfarm employment is said to have risen by about 400 positions or by
0.3 percent from last year. Even the beleaguered manufacturing sector managed
to post a small gain. The majority of the industrial sector posted modest
gains. In sum, there are now 149 thousand people employed in central
Wisconsin business firms.
Sales tax collection in the three county area
is given in Table 5. Sales tax collections are not just
a barometer of local retail activity. In addition, retail activity is a gauge
of the overall health of the economy. Collections were up by 1.6 percent in
Portage County. Likewise, Marathon
County sales tax collections rose by about 1.5 percent and
Wood County collections rose by 0.4
percent over the period. Thus, each county experienced a modest increase in
retail activity before inflation is taken into account.
For each report, the CWERB surveys a group of
regional business leaders to garner their assessment on economic conditions (Table
6). This survey group believes there has been a modest improvement in
national, local and industry conditions. This group is generally most upbeat
about future economic conditions in the local area and in their particular
industry. This appears to bode well for the future direction of the economy.
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