Once again it can be reported that the area economy continues to perform at a healthy pace. Industrial sector employment is significantly higher than a year ago as well as total employment. Area retailers say that store activity is about the same a year ago and help wanted advertising remains high even though it contracted dramatically from last yea's level. Public assistance and unemployment claim data show a stable economic situation. Also, residential construction has slowed but the pace in nonresidential activity accelerated sharply. Finally, financial statistics were very strong for both lending and deposits. Taken together the situation would imply that economic matters are on an upward path in Portage county. 

     Table 7 shows that industrial sector employment rose in nearly every category of activity. Manufacturing payrolls grew by 1,008, services by 149, trade by 319, and government by 1,051. The government figure is most likely inflated because last year teachers were not counted in the figure and this year they were included. Thus, most of the difference is due solely to timing. Construction employment was lower by just 82 positions. Ignoring the reported gain in government employment, it appears that industrial sector employment grew by 1,414 positions or approximately 4.9 percent. 

     Retailer confidence is given in Table 8. Local merchants say that store traffic and sales during second quarter of 1995 were little changed from a year ago. Further, this result is consistent with sales tax data in Table 5 which shows that state disbursements to Portage county were virtually unchanged from a year ago. Our panel of merchants forecast for future store traffic and sales is that activity will moderately improve over the next quarter as compared last year at the same time. 

     The help wanted advertising index fell from 409 to 308 since June 1994
(Table 9). The large decline of 24 percent reflects a reduction in the hiring plans of employers in the local area as well as those of outside advertisers. However, the 308 reading still means that there are 3 positions being advertised for every one that was listed in 1980. Thus, the drop in this barometer signals a cooling in the job market, but not a deep freeze. 

     Public assistance tallies for second quarter 1995 indicate that new applications on a monthly average basis fell from 135 to 119 or 11.9 percent from a year ago (Table 10). Meanwhile the total caseload for Portage county rose from 1,474 to 1,872 or by 27.0 percent from last year. The total caseload figure had been trending downward since early 1993 until this recent reversal. 

     New unemployment claim data on a weekly average basis contracted slightly from last year falling from 53 to 50 (Table 11). Likewise total claims declined from 147 to 138 over the course of the year. Thus, Tables 10 and 11 indicate a fairly stable community in terms of family financial distress. 

     Residential construction activity was generally lower in the area with three of five reporting categories experiencing decline (Table 12). The number of residential permits issued was lower by 19 percent, the estimated value of new homes fell by 13 percent, and residential alteration permits was off by 4.5 percent. Categories of residential construction showing expansion were the number of housing units, higher by 39.6 percent, and the estimated value of residential alteration activity up by 39.4 percent. Please note the number of housing units figure includes apartment units along with single family homes. 

     Nonresidential construction in Stevens Point‑Plover Area is displayed in
Table 13 without percentage changes due to the volatile nature of capital investments. The number of new permits reached 12 with an estimated value of $18.8 million. Further, the number of business alteration permits climbed to 58 with an estimated value of $6.9 million. Thus, even though percentage changes are not given the amount of proposed activity was very substantial for second quarter. 

     Financial statistics in our sample of area institutions are given in Table 14. A healthy amount of growth took place in deposits and in lending. Deposit activity surged by $27.5 million dollars or by 8.6 percent from last year. Bank lending increased by an even more impressive $30.7 million or 10.0 percent over the same period. The lending and deposit number considered together indicate a growing local economy.