The Stevens Point area economy, as predicted in earlier reports, experienced a slowing in its rate of expansion. Even though the unemployment rate improved, total employment was down and nonfarm employment remained unchanged. However, other indicators suggest that the economy should regain some of its lost momentum in the quarters ahead, e.g. construction activity. Further, as mentioned in previous reports, many major local employers are in the midst of or are planning on expanding operations locally. Several new firms have already announced their intention to locate facilities in the local community, e.g., a plastics company, a steel company, and a healthcare provider.

     Lastly, Portage County is the number one vegetable producing county in the state of Wisconsin. To the extent that a more benign weather pattern develops this spring and summer, it should help the agribusiness sector and the wider local economy which supplies many of the inputs for this important activity.

     Portage County nonfarm employment remained virtually unchanged from one year ago, Table 7. Trade, construction, and government employment all registered increases but offsetting these were declines in services and manufacturing. Overall there was a 0.6 percent decline in Portage County employment or 160 positions. The indicators from past reports suggested that a slowdown in the growth rate was likely to take place in the area economy.

     The retailer confidence index for Stevens Point indicates that retail activity was marginally better than one year ago (Table 8). With regard to future activity, this group of merchants expects sales and store traffic to improve three months from now when compared to last year. This is a positive indicator for the local economy as retail activity is the culmination of the production process for goods and services.

     Help wanted advertising for the third quarter in a row was below last year's mark at the local and national levels, Table 9. The index for Stevens Point fell by approximately 12 percent. This signals a continuation in the slowing of job creation in our area. Furthermore, national employment growth should also decelerate over the months ahead as the index fell by nearly 10 percent from a year ago.

     Local family financial distress is an important variable to consider when assessing the health and vitality of an economy. Table 10 shows that new applications for public assistance rose by 7 claims from a year ago to an average of 157 per month. In contrast the total caseload fell from a monthly average of 1491 to 1473 over the past twelve months. Table 11 presents another dimension of family financial distress, unemployment claim data. Whereas new claims remained unchanged with a weekly average of 57 being recorded for both last year and this year, the weekly average for total claims dropped from 138 to 120. The data in Tables 10 and 11 indicate that progress has been made over the course of the year, but in the more recent months there has been a backsliding in family financial distress.
 

     Table 12 presents residential construction, a leading economic indicator. Generally speaking the majority of categories show an increase from last year's levels. This bodes well for the local area as this type of activity is a precursor to wider economic activity. Thus, it appears that 1990 is off to a good start when contrasted with 1989.

     The highly volatile nonresidential sector is presented in Table 13. Business related activity is, for the most part, above last year's totals, Table 13. Like residential construction this is a barometer of future economic activity. From a historical perspective, activity this quarter falls above the established average.

     Financial statistics can provide important information and insight into the internal workings of an economy, Table 14. Bank deposits, a measure of local liquidity, hit an all‑time high for this time of year with an increase of $28 million. The increase in bank loans reflects a nearly $15 million increase in local economic activity. And at $228 million, the loan figures represent a record high regardless of the time of year.