The Wausau area economic indicators paint an interesting picture for second quarter 1993. The unemployment rate rose and total employment fell from last year. However, industrial sector employment gained approximately 1000 jobs from a year ago. 

     Local merchants generally were pleased with second quarter activity and believe third quarter will be equally as pleasing. Help wanted advertising, while down from last year, remains well above the base period. Public assistance, in terms of total caseload, has shown much improvement over the past twelve months, but initial unemployment claims jumped upward by nearly 24 percent. Construction in the residential sector is off of last year's strong pace, but nonetheless registered a solid performance. Financial activity was especially impressive for lending and deposits, which were well above the levels of 1992. 

     Table 7 presents Marathon County industrial sector employment for second quarter 1993. The sector classifications of services, trade, and construction all grew with increases of 400, 800, and 400 respectively. Only government and manufacturing payrolls, which were down by 200 each, were lower than last year. During the last eight and a half years, all five sectors have trended upward. The most dramatic rise has been in service sector employment, which grew from approximately 13 thousand to 18 thousand for a 38 percent gain.
 

     According to the CWERB Retailer Survey, local merchants perceive the levels of total sales and store traffic to be much better than one year ago (Table 8). This group continues to remain upbeat concerning the future. The readings for this quarter were 69 for expected store traffic and 70 for expected sales. Since fourth quarter 1990, there has been a decided upward trend in the assessment of store traffic and sales on the part of participating merchants. Moreover, confidence levels concerning expected store traffic and sales have been climbing steadily since fourth quarter 1990.
 

     The Help Wanted advertising index is presented in Table 9. For the Wausau area, this barometer of local labor market conditions fell by 25 points or 11 percent from last year. Meanwhile, the national help wanted advertising index rose by 10 percent from last year. The index for Wausau peaked on a seasonally adjusted basis in third quarter 1988 at approximately 240. The lowest point since 1985 occurred in second quarter 1991 at about 150.

     Public assistance claims data in Table 10 shows that new applications remain unchanged at an average of 11 per month. However, a large drop in the total caseload took place over the course of the year declining from an average of 97 to an average of 70 per month. Since the late 1980's there has been a steady decline in total caseload. However, new applications have remained at approximately the same level since late 1988.

     Initial unemployment claims in the area rose sharply since last year, Table 11. On a weekly average basis, the count rose from 261 to 323, a 23.8 percent increase. However, there was a small but decent reduction in the total number of unemployment claims, down by 79 or 3.6 percent. Historically, on a seasonally adjusted basis, total claims bottomed out at or near fourth quarter 1989, and have been trending upward until just the past couple of quarters. Further, new claims have been steadily moving upward since late 1991. 

     Residential construction activity was slightly off the hot pace of last year.
Table 12 shows that residential permits issued, the number of residential alteration permits, and the estimated value of residential alterations were lower than last year by 4.0, 17.2, and 40.7 percent respectively. However, the estimated value of new homes and the number of housing units exceeded last year's mark. It is important to keep matters in perspective by remembering that last year's activity was very strong. Moreover, the secular long term trend for all categories has been upward since the CWERB began tracking matters in the early 1980's.

     Nonresidential construction is listed in Table 13. The number of permits was 12 with an estimated value of $3.6 million. Moreover, the number of business alteration permits was 31 with an estimated value of $5.9 million. Building activity at the Wausau Hospital Center accounted for $1.2 million and Wausau Insurance Employees Credit Union for $1 million of the new construction. Further, additions to Wausau area schools accounted for $3.7 million of the alteration activity.

     Financial statistics for the Wausau area are presented in Table 14. Bank lending rose by a very impressive 11.5 percent from last year. The sample shows a $61.6 million increase in lending. Even this amount most likely understates lending activity in the area, because banks, in order to replenish their lending ability, sell many of their loans in the secondary market. Bank deposits were also up from last year. Deposits increased from $712.8 million to $748.3 million or approximately 5.0 percent in our sample. Since 1985 deposits have risen on a seasonally adjusted basis from $450 million to nearly $750 million, an increase of 40 percent.