Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14

     First Quarter economic news for the Wausau area is very positive. The area's unemployment rate is down to just 4.6 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis, compared to 5.0 percent of last year. Moreover, total and industrial sector payrolls are well ahead of last year's mark. For further detail please consider the following economic data about the area.

     Industrial sector employment increased in each category except for the government sector which registered no employment growth (Table 7). Manufacturing and services grew by 500 jobs apiece over the course of the year. During the same period trade expanded by 800 positions and construction by 300. In sum, there are now 2,100 more people employed in these classifications, which represents a gain of 3.4 percent. Thus, we can say that the local area economy performed well over the past year.

     The CWERB poll of area merchants shows this group was very upbeat in their assessment of the Wausau area retail situation (Table 8). Total sales and traffic were judged to be much above last year's levels. Moreover, our local panel believes that activity next quarter will be much ahead of last year's total. The sales tax data in Table 5 corroborates the merchants' opinion of local retail activity, i.e. a very strong sales situation.

     Local labor market conditions continue to tighten. Help wanted advertising rose by 9 percent since last year (Table 9). This surpasses the 3 percent pace set by the national index. The 168 figure means there are nearly 1.7 jobs being advertised for every job in the base year. This, coupled with the job growth figures and the low unemployment rate, suggests that we are experiencing an ever tightening labor market.

     Public assistance data in Table 10 shows that the numbers are higher this year for new and total claims. However, the numbers are so low that any percent change in them is rendered meaningless. New applications rose from 2 to 10 and total claims on a monthly average basis climbed from 9 to 15. Clearly we are at or near a theoretical minimum in these numbers for a community of this size.

     Unemployment claims are another measure of local family financial distress (Table 11). The comments concerning a theoretical minimum apply here as well for public assistance. In other words one could conclude that there would be some minimum number of claims for a community of the Wausau size. For the record, the number of new and total claims were quite stable over the course of the year.

     Low interest rates and rising income levels have helped to stimulate the construction of new housing in our area (Table 12). New permits soared ahead of last year's figure by 30.0 percent and the estimated value of this construction was nearly 23 percent higher. Similarly the number of alteration permits leaped upwards by almost 40 percent and the associated value of the alterations topped last year's mark by 22.6 percent.

     Nonresidential construction in Table 13 is presented without percentage change due to the volatile nature of this activity (Table 13). The number of permits was 4 during First Quarter and the value was estimated at $335 thousand. Meanwhile the number of alteration permits during the period was 32 with an estimated value of $4.7 million. This bodes well for the local area because it is a sign of the confidence on the part of businesses in regard to the economic vitality of the area.

     Financial statistics for Wausau in Table 14 show that a great deal of activity took place in the community. Bank deposits expanded by 11.4 percent since last March or by almost $140 million. Likewise a very nice gain was registered for bank lending. Loans increased by over $101 million or by about 10 percent from a year ago.