There are many good things to say about the local economy is second quarter 1998.  The unemployment rate in Wood County stands at a very low 4.5 percent, and total unemployment grew, albeit by a modest 0.8 percent.  Similarly, industrial sector unemployment rose by about 1.0 percent from last year.  Most other indicators contained in this report are positive in nature with regard to the state of the local economy. 

     Wood County industrial sector employment grew from 42.3 to 42.7 thousand, or by about 1.0 percent from a year earlier (Table 7).  Services, trade, and manufacturing added 600, 200, and 100 positions respectively.  However construction and government payrolls contracted by 100 and 400 persons each.  The CWERB estimates that Marshfield employment rose by approximately 3.1 percent during the same period.  Thus the local area appears to have grown more quickly than the rest of the county.  This is due to the greater proportion of service sector employment in Marshfield. 

     Retailer optimism is lower this quarter that last (Table 8).  When local merchants were queried about store sales and traffic they felt matters have improved but not to the extent as in the previous quarter.  With regard to the future the same type of impression is held by the merchants.  That is, activity should be above last years marks. 

     Help wanted advertising remains quite strong in the local area (Table 9).  The reading of 297 means there are almost 3 jobs being advertised for every one advertised in the base year.  The high level of advertising bodes well for area residents in job search.  The U.S. likewise experienced as increase in its help wanted index. 

     Family financial distress can be measured in a variety of ways.  One measure is public assistance claims on a monthly average basis (Table 10).  For Wood County the total caseload rose from 2,453 to 2,485, or 1.3 percent from last year.  Total caseload data consists of AFDC, MA, and food stamps.  Another measure of distress in the community is unemployment claims data (Table 11).  New claims on a weekly average basis increased from 51 to 65.  Further, total claims grew from 145 to 184 over the same period.  Percentage wise the increases in new and total claims were high, but one should remember that the raw numbers are at low levels. 

     Residential construction for Marshfield in second quarter amounted to 9 new units with an estimated value of $1.1 million (Table 12).  On the other hand, alteration activity was somewhat off the pace of last year.  Residential permits issued totaled 78, down 9.3 percent from a year ago.  Further, the estimated value of these alterations was down 1.1 percent and now stands at 460.7 thousand. 

     Nonresidential construction for the area went as follows (Table 13). The number of new permits was 20 and the estimated value was $1.7 million for this construction. The number of alterations to existing structures was 9. These alterations are estimated to have a value of $348.9 thousand. Percentage changes are not given in Table 13 due to the volatile nature of this type of activity.

     Financial statistics for the local area are presented in Table 14. The amount of bank deposits rose from $288.9 million to $294.8 million, or 2.0 percent from Second Quarter 1997. Likewise bank lending rose by 2.3 percent in our sample of local institutions. The gain in lending was from $253.0 million to $258.9 million for the Marshfield area.

     Clark county economic data is presented in Table 15 and Table 16. Industrial sector figures show that manufacturing, trade, and construction expanded by 5.4, 2.3, and 7.8 percent respectively since June 1997 However, service and government employment dropped by 0.8 and 1.6 percent over the period. We can also see that Clark county's unemployment rate now stands at 5.0 percent compared to 5.9 percent of a year ago. However, this drop is tempered somewhat by the decline in the total number of people employed and the decline in the labor force.