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A summary of the Marshfield section
of the report is as follows: total nonfarm employment has increased by 3.7
percent; retailers indicated that store traffic and sales were unchanged from a
year ago; help wanted advertising increased a great deal over the year; public
assistance claims were lower and unemployment claims were up over last year’s
amounts; residential construction expanded in activity; and the building of
nonresidential structures was lower than a year ago.
Total nonfarm employment in Wood
county increased by 3.7 percent from a year ago (Table 7).
Total nonfarm employment estimates are based on a survey of business firms.
Most sectors in the survey expanded by a healthy amount. Approximately 3.6
thousand jobs were added to the county’s payroll. However, the manufacturing
sector contracted from 6.5 to 5.7 thousand jobs or by 12.3 percent from last
year.
Retailer confidence for Marshfield
is given in Table 8. Total sales and store traffic were
judged to be at about the same level as last year. Our panel of local merchants
believes expected sales and expected store traffic will be marginally better
three months from now compared to a year earlier.
Help wanted advertising in
Marshfield area grew from 60 to 77 from last year (Table 9).
This pick up in advertising bodes well for local job seekers. The U.S. help
wanted figure actually fell over the past twelve months. Help wanted
advertising captures only a small portion of the number of openings in an area.
Nevertheless, it is a good barometer of the future direction of the overall job
market.
Tables 10 and
11 are given to provide information on the levels of
family financial distress in Wood County. Public assistance claims in Wood
County on a monthly average basis fell from 91 to 88 claims or by 3.3 percent
over the past twelve months. However, unemployment claims data for the county
tell a somewhat different story. New claims on a weekly average basis rose from
286 to 325 or by 13.6 percent from fourth quarter 2005. Likewise, total claims
increased from 1,290 to 1,349 or by 4.6 percent over the same period.
Table 12
presents residential construction in the Marshfield area. The number of permits
was 6 and the estimated value of activity was $2.2 million. The permits
represent 9 new housing units. New home construction figures were above last
year’s marks. However, alteration activity was generally lower than last year.
The number of alteration permits fell from 100 to 13 and the value of this
activity contracted from $854 thousand to $175 thousand. Due to the volatile
nature of nonresidential construction no percentage changes are given. The
number of permits issued was 4 and the value $695 thousand. The number of
business alteration permits reached 23 in fourth quarter and they are estimated
to have a value of $2.2 million (Table 13).
Figures 7 to 10 pertaining to Wood
County’s employment level, unemployment level, unemployment rate, and labor
force are presented to depict how these indicators have trended in the area from
2003 to 2006. The reader will gain a greater appreciation of the overall
economic trends for Wood County.
Tables 14 and
15 present economic data on Clark County. The county is
an important market area for Marshfield businesses. Highlights for Clark
includes: total nonfarm employment is up by 2.9 percent; total employment has
risen by 4.3 percent; and the manufacturing sector expanded by approximately 3.6
percent. In addition, figures 11 to 14 are presented for Clark County and show
the trends in the employment level, the unemployment level, the unemployment
rate, and the labor force. |
