During the last year and a half the Wausau-Marathon County economy has made some rather impressive strides forward. Second quarter 1988 continued this trend. The unexpected vitality of the local area coincided with an underestimation of the national economy's performance. Evidence of vigorous local growth can be seen in this quarter's statistics. Some examples are the 5.7 percent surge in total employment and sharp decline in public assistance claims.

     Indicators of future economic activity at the national level are very positive as of July 1988. To the extent that the national and local economies are linked, this bodes well for the latter. There are many positive local indicators as well. Examples include the help wanted advertising index and the amount of residential construction activity. However, the drought of spring and early summer is causing financial distress in the Central Wisconsin farm economy. It is estimated that 5 to 10 percent of Wisconsin's farmers will go out of business as a result of the drought. Deterioration of this sector would have a significant effect on the rest of the county's economy.

     Table 7 gives Marathon County nonfarm employment by major industrial classification. Manufacturing led all sectors in job generation. This pattern has been evident for the past several quarters. Moreover, manufacturing has gained 2,700 positions since the CWERB began keeping track of the situation four years ago. Service and trade sector employment, like manufacturing, now stands at decade high levels for this time of year. Construction and government payrolls participated in the expansion by posting gains. In sum, nonfarm employment in Marathon County jumped upwards by an impressive 2,300 or 5.0 percent from last year.

     The CWERB's survey of local area retailers presents more good news about the local economy.  Table 8 reports that merchants feel they have seen an increase in store traffic and more importantly in sales. The 67 reading for sales is the highest recorded for the June time period. With regard to the future, retailers believe that activity will continue to expand in this sector of the economy. This is a positive indicator for Wausau and Marathon County.

     Another encouraging indicator is presented in Table 9. The help wanted advertising index is an example of one of several devices used by the CWERB in estimating the direction of the local economy. The figure reported for June was over 23 percent higher than last year's mark. Furthermore, the 280 reading is the highest recorded by the CWERB regardless of time of year. More specifically, local help wanted advertising is approximately 2.8 times greater than in June 1980.

     Public assistance and unemployment claims are gathered in order to gauge local family financial distress. This information is presented in Table 10 and Table 11. Dramatic decreases in the number of new applications and in total caseload for public assistance were reported over the past 12 months. The claim number for each category was the lowest since records have been compiled on a county-wide basis. Total unemployment claims were also much lower than a year ago. This figure contracted by nearly 13 percent since last June. The only measure of family financial distress to rise was initial unemployment claims. Overall, a great deal of improvement has taken place locally. However, the number also indicates that there are persons who, for a variety of reasons, have not been able to participate in the nearly six-year-long upward trend in the local economy.

     A leading indicator with great significance and implication for an economy is residential construction.  Table 12 presents this information for the Wausau area. Generally, activity was significantly higher which should generate a ripple effect on the area economy. As a matter of record, overall, the housing construction scene has never been as strong as during second quarter 1988. All reporting categories were much higher except for the number of units.

     Table 13 lists nonresidential construction for the Wausau area. Due to the singular nature of business construction these numbers are volatile and therefore large fluctuations are common from period to period. The data in Table 13 would be on the high end of the historic range. Two major projects are included in this quarter's numbers. First, Target is proceeding with plans for a new store on Wausau's east side. Second, UPS is constructing a new warehouse facility for this area.

     Financial statistics for Wausau are summarized in Table 14.  Bank lending and deposit levels were virtually unchanged from last year. The figures represent one of the few negative indicators to come out of the June time period.