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The economic indicators for Marshfield
suggest that the economy is moving forward, albeit at a slow pace.
For example, total nonfarm employment expanded by just 0.9 percent over
the course of the year. Moreover,
retailers are indicating that store traffic and sales are little changed from a
year ago, and construction is off the robust pace of a year ago.
However, better news comes from the household based estimate of total
employment. This survey suggests
that total employment expanded by 3.7 percent.
Also the unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 percent in Wood county.
Wood county nonfarm employment is presented in Table 7.
The estimates come from business payroll data.
Total nonfarm payrolls grew by 0.9 percent from December 2002. Sectors that expanded over the past twelve months were
transportation and utilities, financial activities, education and health
services, and leisure and hospitality. Sectors
of the economy that experienced a decline were construction and natural
resources, manufacturing, trade, and government. In sum, employment increased
from 44.7 thousand to 45.1 thousand, or by approximately 400 jobs.
The
retailer confidence survey is presented in Table 8.
Local merchants were asked to evaluate the condition of the local retail
sector. When this group was asked to evaluate total sales in their
place of operation they indicated that sales were modestly better than a year
ago. The same level of sentiment
was expressed about store traffic. This
group also felt that future store traffic and sales would not increase over the
next three months when compared to last year's figures.
The
Marshfield help wanted index declined from 84 to 65 over the year (Table
9). This mark suggests there
are about .65 positions being advertised for each position listed in the base
year. The help wanted advertising
is a barometer of local labor market conditions.
It therefore does not capture all the positions becoming available in an
area. Nonetheless, it does serve to
tell us which way the economic winds are blowing and is a good indicator of
labor market conditions.
Measures
of family financial distress are given in Tables 10 and 11.
Public assistance claims on a monthly average basis fell form 120 to 104,
or by 13.4 percent from fourth quarter 2002.
New unemployment claims on a weekly average basis for Wood county
declined from 382 to 359, or 6.0 percent. Further,
total unemployment claims appear to be leveling out.
Total claims increased from 1,652 to 1,670 or by just 1.1 percent from
fourth quarter 2002. The results
contained in Tables 10 and 11 suggest that there has been stabilization or
perhaps a slight improvement in the level of family financial distress.
Residential
construction activity in the Marshfield is off the hot pace of one year ago (Table
12). The number of permits
declined from 19 to 7 and the estimated value of the construction activity fell
from $2.9 million to $1.3 million. Also,
the number housing units slated to be built declined from 24 to 9.
Meanwhile, alteration permits rose slightly from 100 to 103 permits.
The value of this year's alteration activity was $614.3 thousand.
Due
to the inherent volatility of nonresidential construction no percentage changes
are given (Table 13).
The number of permits issued was 5, and the value of the activity was
$2.95 million. A major project was
the expansion of a large retailer. Also
during fourth quarter $1.6 million worth of business alteration activity took
place. Thus, even though percentage
changes are not given, the level of nonresidential activity was very
respectable.
Tables 14 and 15 present economic
information on Clark county. Clark
county represents an important market for Marshfield area business firms.
Table 14 shows that nonfarm employment grew by about 3.0 percent from a
year ago. In addition the
unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent, total employment expanded by 5.5
percent, and the labor force expanded by 4.6 percent.
These numbers would suggest an improvement in local conditions. |
