Almost every local indicator of economic performance says that the Wausau area economy has expanded and it will most likely continue to do so. Thus, economic matters at the area level look strong. However, the national economy continues to show signs of slowing. This slowing will undoubtedly reach Central Wisconsin if it persists for a long enough period of time. At this juncture no one knows the degree to which the national economy is softening.

     Locally, the farm economy should be stronger than last year due to the return of badly needed precipitation. This fact alone should help bolster matters. A major problem facing the Wausau area is the impact of the financial difficulties facing the Rib Mountain Ski Resort on tourism revenues. The possible closing of the facility would undoubtedly cause an undetermined and unmeasured ripple effect throughout the immediate area.

     Marathon County nonfarm employment continues to grow. The third quarter results show an overall increase of 2400 jobs or a 4.9 percent increase. All major sectors, except for government, posted respectable gains. Trade, construction, and services were particularly robust adding 800,700, and 600 respectively. (See Table 7.) The services and construction sectors posted record all-time highs regardless of the time of year, whereas manufacturing and trade posted record highs for the third quarter of the year. As of September 1989 there are nearly 51,000 people employed in nonfarm activities.

     The retailer confidence survey for Wausau presents the views of area merchants. (Table 8) This group believes that store sales and traffic were measurably higher than one year ago. This suggests that the important retail sector experienced somewhat more activity than in third quarter 1988. When asked to estimate future store traffic and sales the responses indicated that the present expansion would continue. This, of course, is a positive indicator for the area economy.

     For the second consecutive quarter help wanted advertising declined from the previous year's level. This paralleled events at the national level. Though local advertising decreased, the index is still at a relatively high level when compared to the historic record. The 199 reading for third quarter suggests that help wanted advertising has nearly doubled since 1980. Although the rate of job generation may slow in the months ahead, it should be remain positive.

     More evidence that the area economy has strengthened over the past twelve months comes from Tables 10 and 11. Total caseload and new claims for public assistance fell by 2.9 and 14.3 percent respectively. Moreover, initial and total unemployment claims decreased by 23.0 and 12.2 percent. When an economy is in an expansive mode and jobs are being created it is expected that measures of family financial distress will decline, all other things being held constant. However, this does not mean that an expansive economy can reach everyone. In such cases other remedies may be needed to address the situation.

     An indicator of future economic prospects is residential construction. (See Table 12.) An explosion of activity occurred during third quarter. The performance of this sector was one of the strongest ever recorded, only second quarter 1988 had comparable results. Every category was much above last year's totals or those of any other third quarter. The largest percent increase came in the number of housing units constructed, up by nearly 90 percent. Pent up housing demand after several years of economic growth is undoubtedly playing a major role in this quarter's developments. It should be noted that Rib Mountain is not included in the numbers due to the difficulty of receiving the statistics on a consistent and timely basis from the municipality.