After lagging behind its neighbors to the north and west, the
Portage
County economy has been
the strongest in the region over the last six months. Because of its
economic base, the Stevens Point
area tends to lag behind national business cycle conditions. This section of
the report focuses on the Stevens
Point area in an effort to pinpoint the reasons for
the local economy's strength. Tables 7-13 provide information on local labor
markets, government assistance to individuals, construction activity and
financial institutions.
The Portage County
economic surge has been led by the manufacturing and construction sectors (Table
7). Manufacturing employment gains have been most pronounced in the
lumber and wood products, furniture and nonelectrical machinery industries. Stevens Point's downtown mall project has been the major
factor in the jump in Portage
County construction
employment. The service and trade sectors have posted solid but less
pronounced gains of 5.2% and 4.2% respectively.
The
30% climb in government employment reported in Table 7 is misleading. This
sector is dominated by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point which
traditionally shows a sharp seasonal rise in payrolls in September. For
example, the current year employment jumped by 1400 over the August level.
However, the seasonal surge was not recorded until October in the 1983
figures. This inconsistency caused the September 1983 government payroll
reading to be artificially low. A more accurate measure is given by the
October 1983 reported total of 5100. Using this figure results in a 2% rise
over last year's government employment level.
Help wanted advertising in the
Stevens Point
area reflects an improving labor market (Table 8).
The volume of advertising has climbed 8.3% above the 1980 level. Tables 9
and 10 provide further evidence of the local economy's strong third quarter
performance. Public assistance claims at the
Stevens Point office continue to drop while
unemployment claims reversed a second quarter increase. Initial unemployment
claims are down slightly from the year earlier level and sharply lower than
the second quarter reading.
Residential construction shows modest gains over the third quarter of 1983 (Table
11). However, the number of new permits and the estimated value of new
homes are down 5.1% and 25.5% respectively from the previous quarter. This
reflects a flattening out of the residential construction industry which is
occurring nationwide.
Nonresidential construction data indicates that the business sector remains
confident of growing demand in the local market (Table
12). Seven new permits were issued during the quarter for an estimated
value of $907,000. All of this new construction activity is in the retail
trade sector. This accounts for the relatively low value of these new
projects. The largest new permits were filed by eating and drinking
establishments.
One of the most encouraging indicators to emerge from the local economy is a
rise in deposits and loans at Portage County's four largest commercial banks (Table
13). Deposits climbed 7.5% while loans jumped 15.2% over last year.
Perhaps more important is the change in these two indicators in the last
three months. After remaining essentially flat for the first six montt1s of
1984, bank deposits rose 2.6% while bank loans increased 3.0% during the
third quarter.
