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The
economic indicators for the local area are as follows. The unemployment rate
is at a very low 3.5 percent, and total employment inched higher growing by
0.8 percent over the year. Industrial sector employment gained about 0.6
percent over the same period. Retailers in the local area are modestly
optimistic, but not as much as they were in June. Help wanted advertising is
off the pace of a year ago. Public assistance claims are generally higher
this year and unemployment claims are little changed from third quarter 2003.
Lastly, construction activity is off the robust pace of 2003.
Employment figures generated from business payroll data suggest that total
nonfarm employment in Portage county grew by a modest 0.6 percent over the
past twelve months (Table 7). Sectors experiencing
growth over the year were construction and natural resources, trade, education
and health services, and leisure and hospitality. On the negative side
manufacturing, and government payrolls are estimated to have contracted from
last year's levels of employment. Lastly the sectors that appear to have had
no change in their payrolls numbers were transportation and utilities,
financial activities, and information and business services.
The
CWERB retailer confidence survey suggests that local merchants are generally
less confident than in June about retail activity in the area (Table
8). However, the survey group remains moderately optimistic in their
assessment of future sales growth and store traffic. Similarly, when asked
bout expected store sales and traffic during the Christmas selling season,
they felt that matters would be slightly better than the year before.
Help wanted advertising for the local are and nation is presented in
Table 9. The index mark of 84 for the great Stevens
Point-Plover Area means there are 0.84 jobs being advertised in 2004 for each
job in the base year. Likewise the national index of 34 indicates there are
only .34 jobs being advertised for each job in its base year. Both indices
suggest that job growth will be sluggish in the months ahead. Further, even
though internet advertising has become much more of a factor, the index
remains a good barometer of labor market conditions.
Measures of local family financial distress are given in
Tables 10 and 11. New public assistance claims on
a monthly average basis rose from 206 to 226 or by 9.6 percent from last
year. The total caseload increased from 3,664 to 4,445 or by 21.3 percent
from a year ago. Another measure to consider are the unemployment claim
figures. New claims on a weekly average basis stayed at about the same level
as a year ago, 158 in 2003 and 159 in 2004. Meanwhile, the number of total
claims contracted form 1,241 to 1,072 or by 13.6 percent.
Residential construction fell from the blistering pace of established in 2003
(Table 12). The number of new permits declined from 72
to 50 and the estimated value of the activity declined from $14.4 million to
$9.1 million over the year. The number of new housing units likewise declined
from 112 to 54. However, there was a slight up tick in the number of
residential alteration permits issued, rising from 262 to 287. The associated
value of the alteration activity contracted from $1.9 million to $1.8 million
since third quarter 2003.
Table
13 gives the nonresidential construction figures for the area. The number
of permits issued during third quarter was 9 and they were valued at $4.8
million. Business alteration activity resulted in 51 permits being issued.
The value of the activity was $4.0 million. As usual no percentage changes
are given for nonresidential construction activity because it tends to be very
volatile from period to period. In other words business projects tend to be
very large singular events and as a result the figures can fluctuate
dramatically form period to period. |
