|
Almost
all the economic indicators for Central Wisconsin were positive for third
quarter 2003. Employment is
higher in both the household survey of total employment and the employer
survey of industrial sector activity. Regional
business people are much more optimistic about the economy than they were in
June. There has been a lot confidence gained with respect to their
particular industry. On the
negative side the unemployment rate rose over the year and retail sales
collections were weak.
Seasonally
unadjusted unemployment rates from all the reporting areas were higher than a
year ago (Table 2).
Portage, Marathon, and Wood counties had unemployment rates of 3.7,
3.8, and 4.9 percent respectively. Central
Wisconsin's labor force weighted rate was 4.1 percent, up from 3.9 percent.
The U.S. had the highest unemployment rate of any reporting area coming
in at 5.8 percent.
Good
news is reported in Table 3.
The household based survey of employment indicates that Portage,
Marathon, and Wood county payrolls expanded by 3.5, 2.3, and 3.0 percent
respectively. Central Wisconsin
employment reached 152.0 thousand, which represents a 2.8 percent gain from
last year. This mark exceeds the
employment change at the state and national levels of 2.3 and 0.3 percent
respectively.
Industrial
sector employment is based on a survey of employers (Table 4).
Total nonfarm industrial sector employment is estimated to have risen
by almost 1.0 percent in the three county area.
Sectors experiencing expanding payrolls include financial activities,
education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and information and
business services. Contracting
sectors in the Central Wisconsin area include manufacturing, trade,
transportation and utilities, and government.
Portage
county sales tax collections for third quarter grew from $1.1 million to $1.2
million or by nearly 4.0 percent from last years total (Table
5). Marathon county
collections meanwhile are estimated to have declined from $2.61 million to
$2.55 million, or by 2.5 percent. Sales
tax data are a gauge of economic activity at the retail level.
Not all activity, of course, is covered by the sales tax, so to some
extent, it understates the amount of economic activity.
Table
6 presents the CWERB's survey of area business people and their thoughts
on economic conditions. The group is more optimistic than last quarter
in its assessment of recent changes at the national and regional level.
When this group was asked to forecast future activity there was a very
noticeable increase in confidence for the national economy, and for their
particular industry. If their forecast for their businesses comes to
pass, it would be a very positive development for the Central Wisconsin area. |
