Wausau Area
4th Quarter 2001
 

Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12

The Wausau economic indicators suggest that the area has been touched by the national recession.  For example, the unemployment rate is up from a year ago, and total employment has contracted.  In addition, employment in the manufacturing sector is estimated to be 4.1 percent lower than a year ago.  Other indicators like unemployment claim data suggest a deterioration in economic conditions.      A complete listing of Marathon County's industrial sector employment is given in Table 7.  As mentioned elsewhere in the report manufacturing has taken the brunt of the contraction.  Manufacturing payrolls are estimated to have contracted from 19.3 thousand to 18.5 thousand, or 4.1 percent from Fourth Quarter 2000.  Trade was also lower over the course of the year.  Trade payrolls declined from 18.1 to 18.0 thousand.  Good news, comes however from the robust services sector.  This sector managed to add 2.7 percent to its payrolls. Similarly the construction and government sectors increased by 100 and 200 positions respectively.  These figures represent solid gains of 3.0 and 2.5 percent.  Overall industrial sector employment currently at 71 thousand is estimated to be unchanged over the past twelve months.      Table 8 presents the CWERB retailer confidence survey. Local area merchants remain upbeat in their assessment of the retail scene.  When asked about store traffic and sales compared to one year ago this group indicated that matters were better than a year ago.  Moreover, when they were asked to forecast future levels of store traffic and sales they thought next quarter would see measurable gains in activity levels.  Thus, it appears that the retail sector has held up fairly well in light of the fact that the county is in a recession.      Table 9 shows that help wanted advertising fell dramatically from one year ago. This barometer of local labor market conditions tumbled from 159 to 108 or by 32 percent.  The national index likewise took a sharp drop from 79 to 45, or a 43 percent decline.  Both indexes indicate that employers have drastically altered their hiring plans.  This comes as little surprise given the recessionary environment and suggests that the area labor market is not as strong as it was previously.      Another sign of the weak economic condition comes from the unemployment claims data for the Marathon County area (Table 10).  New claims on a weekly average basis climbed from 456 to 538, which represents a substantial increase of 18.0 percent.  Area layoffs have also had an impact on total unemployment claims figure. Total claims have rocketed upwards from 1,653 to 2,101, or by 27 percent over the course of the year.  Clearly the slowing economy has played a major influence on these unemployment claim figures.      Even though residential construction activity is generally lower than a year ago, the totals remain at elevated levels (Table 11).  For the Fourth Quarter the number of permits issued contracted by 3.1 percent and the associated value of this new home construction was 22.0 percent behind last year's pace.  Further the number of new housing units was down by 8.2 percent from a year ago.  On the brighter side of things, the number of residential alteration permits issued was 23 percent higher than in 2000, and the value of this activity rose by an estimated 3.6 percent.      Nonresidential construction is presented without percentage changes (Table 12).  This type of activity is very volatile and can change dramatically from year to year.  The number of new permits issued was 12 in Fourth Quarter 2001.  Moreover, the estimated value of this activity was approximately $7.2 million.  During the same period the number of business alteration permits climbed to 54, and they had an approximate value of $4.5 million.

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University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
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