The data shows signs that the Wausau area economy has slowed down from a year ago.  A number of the economic indicators suggest that this is indeed the case.  Most of the difficulty is centered in the manufacturing sector.  The over capacity in many manufacturing industries in relation to worldwide demand has greatly impacted this sectors' profitability.

     Industrial sector employment for Marathon County (Table 7) shows that the manufacturing sector has been hard hit by the slow down in economic activity.  Manufacturing payrolls are estimated to be 3.5 percent lower than a year ago, falling by about 700 net positions.  Strength was demonstrated in the services, trade, and government sectors.  Respectively they added 2.7, 1.7, and 4.1 percent to the employment base of Marathon County.  Construction remained unchanged from a year ago.  In sum, industrial sector employment rose by a scant 0.7 percent.  As was mentioned earlier the manufacturing sector seems to be taking the brunt of the economic difficulties.

     In contrast to the sales collection data, local merchants in Wausau remain upbeat about the local retail scene (Table 8).  They indicate that store sales and traffic were better than last year.  Further, they are forecasting that store traffic and sales three months from now, compared to a year ago, will be higher.  Thus, this group is fairly optimistic about the local situation.

     Help wanted advertising is a barometer of the local labor condition.  The index in Table 9 shows that there has been a large decline in the amount of job related advertising since last year.  The index contracted sharply from 143 to 93.  The 93 figure indicates that there are about 93 positions being advertised for every 100 jobs in the base year.  The data suggests that area employers have scaled back in their hiring plans.  Relatedly, a survey conducted by a temporary employment provider indicated that Wisconsin employers were not in a hiring mode.  Only about 24 percent of firms surveyed indicated that they planned to expand their workforces.  From a historic standpoint this is a very low figure.

     More evidence of a slowdown in economic activity comes from the unemployment claims data for the greater Wausau area (Table 10).  New claims on a weekly average basis rose from 228 to 364 or by 59.6 percent from a year ago.  Likewise, total claims increased from 1,261 to 2,053, representing a large gain of 62.8 percent.  Thus, the level of local family financial distress has risen for a number of our residents.

     Residential construction (Table 11) was off the robust pace of one year ago.  The number of permits issued declined from 85 to 77 and the estimated value of this activity declined by 14.7 percent from a year ago.  Additionally, the number of housing units fell from 101 to 88 or by 12.9 percent.  Although, residential alteration permits climbed from 387 to 402 for a modest gain of 3.9 percent, the estimated value of the activity fell by approximately 6.0 percent.

     Nonresidential construction is presented without percentage changes (Table 12).  This type of activity is very volatile; hence great swings from year to year are common.  The number of permits issued fell from 13 to 7 and the value of the activity contracted from $4.3 million to $3.5 million.  The number of business alteration permits declined from 58 to 47 but several large projects pushed the estimated value of alteration activity from $8.4 million to $22.4 million.  Large additions to a local medical clinic, a performance arts organization, and to one of the local high schools accounted for the large surge in this number.