Highlights of this quarter's results for Wood County and Marshfield are as follows: The unemployment rate while higher than last year is still relatively low.  Moreover, employment growth in the county was a strong 5.1 percent.  Along the same lines the Marshfield Employment Index registered a nice gain of 3.0 percent.  These and other economic indicators suggest that the local economy continues its record long expansion.

     Except for the manufacturing sector, all industrial categories experienced growth in the year over comparison (Table 7).  Services and trade added an estimated 600 and 300 positions respectively.  Construction and government kept pace by adding 100 and 700 positions.  Manufacturing, on the other hand, fell by an estimated 300 positions since the September 1999 time frame.  In addition, the CWERB's Marshfield Employment Index rose from 133.4 to 137.4, which implies a job growth rate of 3.0 percent for the local area.

     The CWERB's retailer confidence survey results are displayed in Table 8.  Our panel of local merchants indicated that sales levels were noticeably better than a year ago, while store traffic was about at the same level as in 1999.  Lastly, this group forecasts that next quarter's sales and store traffic will be moderately higher than in Fourth Quarter 1999.

     The amount of help wanted advertising in the area is at a record level (Table 9).  The index for September stood at 352 in 2000, compared to 296 in 1999.  The 352 figure indicates there are 3.5 jobs being advertised for each job in the base year.  The index does not capture all job opportunities.  However, it is a good indicator as to the direction of the labor market.  From this we can conclude that the job market is becoming increasingly more competitive for qualified workers.

     Public assistance claim data in Table 10 shows that the total caseload decreased from 2,476 to 2,324, or a decline of 6.1 percent.  This information is collected on a countywide basis.  In addition, layoffs at a few Wood County employers served to push up unemployment claims in this quarter's report (Table 11).  New claims on a weekly average basis rose from 52 to 71, a 36.5 percent increase.  Further, total claims grew from 168 to 191, or a gain of 13.7 percent.  Thus, even though the number of claims have risen, the levels are at a relatively low mark in relation to the county's population level of about 80,000 people. 

     Residential construction in the Marshfield area is at about the same level as one year ago (Table 12).  The number of residential permits issued this year was 12 compared to 14 of a year ago.  Likewise the estimated value of the construction was $1.6 million this year contrasted with $1.7 million in 1999.  The number of housing units was 14 this year compared to 17 of last year.  Growth was evident in the number of alteration permits issued.  The number in 1999 was 41 as compared to 61 in Third Quarter 2000.  The estimated value of this year's activity reached $593.6 thousand, which is significantly higher than last year's mark of $238.2 thousand.

     As usual no percentage changes are given in Table 13 for nonresidential construction activity.  The volatile nature of this activity causes large year-to-year swings in the totals.  The number of permits issued was 32 and they had an estimated value of about $2 million.  The number of alteration permits granted was 5 and their value was pegged at $389.5 thousand.

     The CWERB's sample of area financial institutions reveals that bank deposits increased from $180.7 million to 189.0 million, or by almost 5.0 percent from last year (Table 14).  Another measure to consider in our evaluation of the economic situation is bank lending.  Loans amounted to $166.0 million in Third Quarter 1999, compared to almost $170.0 million in Third Quarter 2000.

     Clark County economic information is given in Table 15 and Table 16.  Manufacturing and construction employment were the largest gainers in terms of payroll expansion.  In contrast, services and government payrolls are reportedly lower than a year ago.  Trade, meanwhile, is estimated to be slightly higher than twelve months ago.  In addition to the aforementioned, the unemployment rate, while still low in Third Quarter 2000, rose from 2.7 percent to 4.1 percent.  Lastly, total employment in this primarily rural county rose from an estimated 14,974 to 15,473 or by 3.3 percent.