The economic climate in the Wausau area continues to be quite healthy. The evidence is plentiful to support such a conclusion. The unemployment rate is at an incredibly low 2.9 percent, total employment has increased by 2.4 percent, and almost all other indicators of economic well being are ahead of last years totals. Thus, it appears that the local economy remains on solid footing.

     Favorable economic conditions have allowed nonfarm employments to continue to grow in Marathon county (Table 7). For the record, payrolls expanded from 62.6 thousand to 64.0 thousand or a respectable 2.2 percent from a year ago. This quarter's rate of growth is characteristic of the type experienced in our area over the past number of years. The manufacturing, trade, and construction sectors in the Marathon economy expanded by 500, 700, and 200 jobs respectively. However, employment in the services sector remained unchanged.     This is uncharacteristic of this sector because it has usually lead employment growth in the area. The same situation was true for the government sector where payrolls did not grow over the course of the year.

     Retailer confidence is a barometer of the local economy (Table 8). Our panel of local merchants believes that Christmas sales were noticeably higher than last year's figures. Moreover. store traffic was judged to be moderately better over the same period. With regard to the future direction of retail activity, this group is quite optimistic that sales and store traffic will be above those of last year.

     Another gauge of local labor market conditions is help wanted advertising (Table 9).    The index of 153 means there are approximately 1.5 jobs being advertised for every job listed in the paper during the base year. Since the beginning of 1995 the index, on a moving average basis, has been in decline. This suggests that while job advertising may remain at an elevated level, it has nonetheless been trending downward.

     Public assistance claims, both new and total, have declined dramatically since the latter half of 1995 (Table 10). For instance the total caseload for early 1995 was at 90 on a seasonally adjusted basis. Today the number of total general assistance claims is 10. Clearly the economy has played a role, but more important than that has been the effort made to move individuals off welfare in anticipation of the state's W2 plan. Similarly, initial general assistance claims have plunged over the period.

     Good news can be reported with regard to the unemployment claim data for Fourth Quarter (Table 11). New claims on a weekly average basis fell by 32.7 percent from last year. Additionally, total claims have tumbled downward by 44.6 percent. Total claims on a seasonally adjusted basis have been trending sharply lower since late 1995. In more detail, total claims in 1995 stood at over 2,500 compared to the Fourth Quarter 1996 figure of just 1,403. Thus, a tremendous improvement in these numbers has occurred.
 

     Residential construction activity is presented in Table 12. Almost every category of activity was above last year's totals. Residential permits issued increased by 23.0 percent and the value of new construction was 27.4 percent better than a year ago. The number of housing units likewise expanded by 20.0 percent. Only residential alteration activity was lower this year falling by about 21.1 percent. However, the dollar amount associated with this activity actually rose by 11.7 percent.
 

     The nonresidential construction figures in Table 13 are presented without percentages. The inherent volatility of this type of activity makes the evaluation of year‑to‑year performance very difficult. The number of permits issued was 10 with an estimated value of $4.1 million. Moreover, there were 40 alteration permits issued with an estimated value of $2.9 million. The largest part of the dollar amount for new structures is associated with a new hotel being constructed in Wausau.
 

     Table 14 presents the bank statistics from our sample of area institutions. Deposits expanded by a healthy $85.2 million or by 7.5 percent from last year. Also, good news can be reported in the lending category. Bank loans rose from $922.0 million to $1.03 billion over the twelve‑month period. This quarter's results are encouraging and suggest an expanding local economy.