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The Wood County and Marshfield area indicators suggest that First Quarter 1997
was a period of very modest economic growth. The unemployment rate rose from 5.0
to 5.4 percent over the year and total employment grew by just 1.6 percent.
However, stronger performance was registered in our industrial sector payroll
data which expanded by about 2.9 percent. Additionally, even for a First
Quarter, residential construction activity was quite slow.
Wood county Industrial sector employment increased from 40.7 to 41.9 thousand
since last year (Table 7). This represents a healthy 2.9
percent rate of change. Moreover, the Marshfield Employment Index is estimated
to have risen by about 4.0 percent. This means that
Marshfield
area payrolls grew by a respectable amount since March 1996. Services and trade
employment lead the Wood county expansion, adding 800 and 700 jobs each.
Retailer confidence in the
Marshfield
area was generally higher than what we measured in December
(Table 8).
Total sales and store traffic are judged to be moderately better than last year
during the same time period. This panel of local merchants also believes that
store traffic and sales will be much improved three months from now when
compared to last year's activity levels.
Help wanted advertising, although lower than last year, remains at an elevated
level for Marshfield
(Table 9).
The mark of 152 means there are 1.5 jobs for every job advertised in the base
year. The national index rose by 7 points or by 8.5 percent over the same
period. Both sets of numbers suggest that job growth wilt continue to take place
in the local and national economies and that recession is unlikely.
Measures of local family financial distress are presented in
Table 10 and
Table 11. Public assistance claims on a monthly average
basis declined by 6.6 percent. Public assistance claims have been trending
steadily downward since early 1996 in our area. Meanwhile, unemployment claim
data shows that new applications on a weekly average basis rose from 86 to 98 in
the year over comparison. At the same time, total claims expanded from 196 to
245, or by 25.0 percent.
Residential construction activity was slow during the winter months
(Table 12).
The number of permits issued was unchanged from last year, remaining at just
one. The value of the project was estimated to be $95 thousand. Residential
alteration activity was ahead of last year as there were 37, versus 25, projects
taking place during the period. However, the estimated value of the activity
fell from $225 to $194 thousand. In sum, past First Quarters have had higher
totals than this year.
The nonresidential construction figures are given in Table 13.
The number of permits was 3 and their estimated value was $2.9 thousand.
Meanwhile, the number of alteration projects was 14 and this activity was
estimated to have a value of $753 thousand. No percentage changes are given for
these categories due to the volatile nature of this type of activity.
Good news comes from the strong performance exhibited in the area's financial
statistics (Table
14). Bank deposits
expanded from $273.5 to $293.4 million, or 7.3 percent from last year. Even more
robust was the gain recorded for bank lending. Loans increased from $226.7 to
$254.1 million or 12.1 percent over the year. Both sets of numbers indicate that
a good deal of economic activity took place in our local community.
Clark county economic data are given in Table 15 and
Table 16. Manufacturing and trade employment lead the
industrial sectors by adding 7.2 and 4.3 percent respectively to their payrolls.
The sectors of services, construction, and government, however, were lower than
a year ago. Moreover, the unemployment rate rose over the year, and total
employment fell by 1.5 percent. Thus, First Quarter 1997 was a sluggish period
for Clark County. |
