Wood county industrial sector employment (Table 7) increased by an estimated 800 positions, or 1.9 percent from a year ago.  Moreover, the Marshfield Employment Index rose by 2.8 percent.  This implies that Marshfield area employment, due to the strength of services sector, expanded more quickly than the county as a whole.  In Wood county the services sector was estimated to have grown by 700 positions.  Manufacturing and trade each added 100 people to local payrolls.

     Marshfield area retailers say that total sales and store traffic (Table 8) are somewhat better than a year ago.  When asked to assess the future, the panel of local merchants said that they expect store traffic and sales to advance beyond last year's levels.  In December this group was not as optimistic as it is now about the future.

     The help wanted advertising index (Table 9) is a good barometer of local labor market conditions.  Thus, we may infer from the 247 mark that labor market conditions will brighten in the months ahead for area residents.  Further, the surge to 247 represents a 72-point gain from last year, or a 41 percent increase.  Meanwhile, the U.S. help wanted advertising index was virtually unchanged over the period.

     Public assistance claims (Table 10) are compiled monthly and are collected on a countywide basis.  Public assistance includes AFDC, MA, and food stamps.  The total caseload in the county increased slightly from 2,467 to 2,500, or 1.3 percent.  Another measure of local family financial distress is unemployment claims  (Table 11).  New claims on a weekly average basis for the county fell from 110 to 95, or 13.6 percent.  Total claims likewise contracted from 252 to 246, or by 2.4 percent, in the year over comparison.

     Residential construction (Table 12) activity for 1st Quarter was off the pace of last year.  The percentage changes may appear large, but the raw numbers are relatively small.  The number of new permits was 2 and their estimated value was $168 thousand.  The number of housing units fell from 5 to 3.  Residential alteration permits fell as well, from 35 to 19 and the value of this activity was also lower, falling from $198.0 thousand to $129.6 thousand.

     Nonresidential construction is presented in Table 13.  The number of permits issued during 1st Quarter was 7.  The estimated value of the activity was $6.0 million.  Large projects included in the aforementioned are the expansions to the Marshfield Clinic office building, the Office Max Superstore, and AFIG Inc.

     Financial statistics for 1st Quarter are presented in Table 14.  Bank deposits for the area were $335.8 million and bank lending was $271.4 million.  In November of 1998 a bank merger took place which affected deposit and lending numbers in the area.  Thus, numbers after the merger are not comparable to pre-merger figures.  By the end of this year comparability will be restored.

     Clark county economic data is presented in Table 15 and 16.  Manufacturing, trade, and construction increased by 2.9, 1.3, and 13.9 percent respectively since last year.  Services and government employment is estimated to have declined over the same period by 1.9 and 0.5 percent.  Further, the unemployment rate fell from 8.7 to 7.7 percent over the course of the year and total employment increased by just 0.2 percent.