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A summary of the results for this quarter is as follows:
unemployment rates are generally lower in the region; total employment has
expanded by about 1.6 percent over the year; industrial sector employment
totals have grown by 2.1 percent over the same period; central Wisconsin
sales tax distributions collected by the state may not accurately reflect
local conditions; and area business executives are modestly upbeat about the
economy.
Unemployment rates throughout the region were generally lower than
a year ago
(Table 2). The lone exception being the increase from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent
Marathon county. The rates in Portage and Wood counties declined to 4.0
percent and 4.8 percent respectively. Wisconsin’s rate rose to 4.5 percent
over the period. Meanwhile the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 4.3
percent. Please note, due to rounding, an area’s unemployment rate may show
no change. However, changes at the second decimal place may have occurred
and these changes are reflected in the table’s percentage column.
Employment growth in the region has been impressive
(Table 3). Portage, Marathon, and Wood counties grew by 1.6, 3.7, and 3.9
percent from a year ago. Total central Wisconsin employment increased from
148.6 thousand to 152.2 thousand or by 2.4 percent since December 2005.
Wisconsin added around 50,000 positions or grew 1.7 percent over the same
period. The U.S. added 2.2 percent to its payrolls or about 3.2 million
jobs over the course of the year.
Industrial sector employment in Table 4 comes from
a survey of business firms. Total nonfarm employment grew by 2.1 percent
over the year. The number of nonfarm positions rose from 150.5 thousand to
153.7 thousand over the year. Sectors experiencing job growth were
transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, information and
business services, education and health services, and government. On the
negative side of the ledger, construction, manufacturing, and trade all
experienced declines in their respective payrolls.
Sales tax distributions from the state back to
the three counties were lower than a year ago (Table 5).
The state’s distributions to the local areas may not accurately reflect the
amount of economic activity in the counties. These disappointing results
may have more to do with technical problems at the state level than local
retail activity. Taken at face value, the distributions would suggest a
rather sharp downturn in retail activity. This seems to be at variance with
other observations on the economy and the level of retail activity.
The CWERB survey of regional business executives is done to gain their
views on the economy (Table 6). This group believes
that recent economic changes at the national and local levels have been
marginally positive. In other words, matters have improved slightly. This
group is somewhat more upbeat about the future direction of the nation, the
local area, and the economic condition in their particular business.
Hopefully their forecast comes to fruition for the people of our region.
Figures 2 to 6 in this section of the report
present trends in the Wisconsin employment level, the unemployment level,
the unemployment rate, the labor force, the average manufacturing wage, and
the employment trend in educational and health services for the years 2003
to 2006. The figures show how these important variables have changed in
Wisconsin and give the reader a better appreciation of the recent economic
history of the state. |
