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A summary of this quarter's highlights is as
follows. The unemployment rate in
Wood
County
fell to 5.8 percent and total employment climbed upward by 1.6
percent. Moreover, industrial sector employment grew by an even
more rapid 2.5 percent or nearly a thousand jobs. Retailers
remain upbeat about the future but not to the same degree as a
quarter ago. Help wanted advertising, a barometer of local labor
market conditions rose by nearly 27 percent.
Local family financial distress, as measured by
public assistance and unemployment claims made a small, but
measurable, improvement over the past twelve months. However,
nonresidential construction activity was off the pace of a year
ago and financial statistics for the area showed little change
from June 1992.
Table 7 shows that
Wood
County
employment rose in three industrial sectors and remained
unchanged in two. Services, trade, and construction were the
gainers for second quarter posting increases of 440, 400, and
150 respectively. However, manufacturing and government payrolls
were unchanged. The Marshfield Employment Index suggests that
local positions increased by about 2.4 percent. Over the years a
subtle transformation has taken place in Wood County. The area
has become much more service oriented. For example, service
sector employment has been the fastest growing category,
expanding from approximately 10,500 in 1985 to 14,500 in 1993, a
gain of 38 percent.
Retailer
confidence is listed in Table 8. Local
merchants told the CWERB that sales and store traffic were above
last year's levels as indicated with marks of 64 and 61. A
reading above 50 suggests improvement in economic conditions.
When asked about the future, this group forecasts that sales and
store traffic will be stronger than a year ago. However, the 66
and 64 levels are lower than last quarter's tally of 71 and 70.
Thus, retailers remain upbeat but not as optimistic as they were
last quarter. Developments in Washington, D.C. concerning the
deficit reduction package may be playing a large role in
influencing the thinking of local retailers.
The Marshfield
Help Wanted Advertising Index in Table 9
shows that local job advertising rose by 27 percent from last
year. Historically, on a seasonally unadjusted basis, the index
peaked in third quarter 1990 and then bottomed out in early
1992. Ever since then, the trend has been decidedly upward.
Public assistance claims on a monthly average
basis are presented in Table 10. This
measure of local family distress tells us that new applications
fell from 42 to 35, a 16.7 percent decline, whereas the total
caseload expanded over the course of the year from 810 to 849, a
change of 4.8 percent. Total caseload has been on an upward
trend since first quarter 1991 when it reached a nadir of
approximately 550.
Table 11 depicts
unemployment claim activity during second quarter for the area.
This measure of local family financial distress is presented on
a weekly average basis. Initial unemployment claims fell from 53
to 50, a change of 5.7 percent. Greater improvement was evident
in total unemployment claims where a decline of 8.2 percent was
registered, a fall from 134 to 123. Both initial and total
claims have been steadily trending downward since late 1991.
Residential construction figures for the
Marshfield area
are given in Table 12. Residential
permits issued and the estimated value of new construction fell
by 47.8 percent and 36.7 percent respectively. In contrast, the
number of housing units and the estimated value of alteration
activity climbed by 41.7 and 9.1 percent respectively. Lastly,
the number of residential alteration permits was unchanged from
a year ago.
Nonresidential construction in
Marshfield for
second quarter 1993 is offered to the reader in
Table 13. The number of permits issued
totaled 15 with an estimated value of $121.7 thousand. There
were 13 business alteration permits issued valued at $2.05
million. Percentage changes are not given due to the year to
year volatility of investment activity.
Financial statistics for the area show that bank
deposits in our sample expanded a scant 0.6 percent or by $1.3
million from June 1992 (Table 14). Bank
lending also increased but by an even lower rate, 0.2 percent or
$.4 million. Once again it should be noted that bank lending is
understated to the extent that local lending institutions have
sold loans in the secondary market in order to replenish their
local lending ability.
Table 15 and
Table 16 are included in this report in
order to provide access to
Clark County economic
statistics, as Clark County is an important market for many
Marshfield area businesses. |
