The Marshfield - Wood County report for the second quarter shows a number of interesting results.  The unemployment rate is lower than a year ago, and the household-based survey of employment in Table 3 indicates that the number of jobs has increased by 3.3 percent.  In addition, the employer-based survey of employment in Table 7 shows payrolls have risen by nearly 2.0 percent.  Both surveys imply that the economy is starting to gain some momentum. 

             Table 7 presents a detailed listing of Wood county industrial sector employment.  Educational and health services posted the largest gains by adding 600 positions since a year ago.  Leisure and hospitality also did well by expanding by 300 jobs.  Manufacturing in the county experienced the greatest decline with an estimated loss of 400 jobs.  In sum, total nonfarm employment grew by a modest 1.6 percent since last year. 

            The CWERB survey of local merchants reveals that area retailers are less optimistic than they were a year ago (Table 8).  The survey group indicated that total sales and store traffic were lower than last year figures.  Moreover, the degree of optimism for future store traffic and sales was lower than three months ago with expectations tempered by recent economic conditions. 

            The help wanted advertising index for Marshfield contracted from 144 to 107 over the past twelve months, nearly 26 percent (Table 9).  The mark of 107 means there are 107 positions being advertised for every one hundred jobs in the base period.  For the U.S. the index declined from 44 to 36.  Incredibly, the U.S. help wanted advertising index indicates there are only 36 positions being posted for every 100 openings in the base year.  These figures underscore why the recent expansion has been called a jobless recovery. 

            The number of public assistance claims is a measure of local family financial distress (Table 10).  The total caseload in Wood county expanded from 96 to 109, nearly 14.0 percent since last year.  Another measure of financial distress is the number of unemployment claims (Table 11).  New unemployment claims on a weekly average basis increased from 254 to 299, 17.7 percent from a year ago.  An indication that the economic trend is improving is the fact that the number of total claims seems to be leveling off, declining from 1969 to 1908. 

            Residential construction experienced a good second quarter (Table 12).  The number of residential permits issued expanded by 15.0 percent and the estimated value of the construction rose from $3.4 million to $3.9 million.  The only downside to the construction numbers was that the number of housing units declined.  Residential alteration permits jumped from 234 to 366, approximately 56 percent.  The estimated value rose by an even larger percentage.  The value of household alterations rose from $1.2 million to $2.6 million, by 114 percent since June 2002. 

            Due to the volatile nature of nonresidential construction, this indicator is presented without percentage changes (Table 13).  The number of permits was 7, having an estimated value of $1.3 million.  The number of business alterations permits totaled 14 with a value listed at $1.0 million.  Generally speaking this years activity was lower than a year ago.