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The economic results for
central Wisconsin were quite positive for first quarter 2007. Unemployment
rates throughout the region were generally lower than a year ago. Total
employment figures from the household survey suggest payrolls grew by 5.8
percent. Total industrial employment figures from the business firm survey
suggest payrolls grew by 4.3 percent. Lastly, regional business executives
were fairly upbeat about the prospects for their industry.
Unemployment rates (Table 2), when compared to
last year, were lower throughout the central Wisconsin region. Portage,
Marathon, and Wood county unemployment rates fell to 5.4 percent, 5.0
percent, and 6.3 percent respectively in March 2007. Meanwhile, the labor
force weighted unemployment rate for central Wisconsin contracted from 5.8
percent to 5.5 percent in our year over comparison. Unfortunately, the
Wisconsin unemployment rate rose from 5.5 percent to 5.6 percent. During
the same period the U.S. rate plunged from 4.8 percent to 4.5 percent.
More good news comes from the total employment figures listed in
Table 3. Portage, Marathon, and Wood county
employment grew by 5.8, 1.6, and 3.4 percent respectively over the past
twelve months. Very importantly, central Wisconsin total employment
expanded from 145.9 thousand to 150.5 thousand, or by 3.1 percent, over the
same period. However, Wisconsin payrolls expanded by a scant 0.6 percent
over the year and the nation added 1.8 percent to its’ payrolls.
Industrial sector employment is displayed in Table 4.
Nonfarm payroll estimates are generated from a sample of business firms.
The estimate for total nonfarm employment suggests that payrolls in the
three county area expanded by a very healthy 4.3 percent since last year.
The only sectors not experiencing an increase in employment were
manufacturing, down by just 0.4 percent, and trade, where payroll levels
remained unchanged.
Sales tax distributions (Table
5) show that Portage County’s collections were virtually unchanged from
a year ago, rising by 0.1 percent. During the same period, Marathon
County’s sales tax collections fell by about 4.0 percent. Only Wood
County’s sales tax collections were above last year’s total, rising by 4.3
percent. Thus, in the three-county area activity levels varied greatly and
were somewhat lower in total than in the previous year.
The CWERB survey of regional business
executives is presented in Table 6. This group of
executive believes that national economic conditions have changed little
over the past several months and that local economic conditions have
improved modestly. When asked to forecast future conditions they felt that
there will be a slight degree of improvement in national and local economic
conditions. The greater amount of optimism expressed was reserved for the
improvement in their particular industry. In other words, the survey groups
offered a fairly optimistic assessment of their firms’ economic prospects.
Figures 2 through 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 weekly manufacturing wage, and the
employment trend in educational and health services from 2003 to first
quarter 2007. 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.
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