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The major findings of the report for the Stevens Point-Plover area are as
follows. Portage County nonfarm employment expanded from 35.1 thousand to
35.4 thousand over the past year. Retailer confidence results suggest
little change has taken place in terms of store traffic and sales. Help
wanted advertising is lower than a year ago, possibly signaling a
continuation of anemic job growth. Public assistance and unemployment
claims data suggest somewhat of a mixed picture of local family distress.
Residential construction is well off the mark from a year ago. However,
nonresidential construction is booming.
Industrial sector employment is estimated by the state (Table
7). This estimate is based on a survey of business firms. Portage
County total nonfarm employment has risen by 0.9 percent since September
2005. The manufacturing sector declined by 200 positions. No other sector
contracted as much as the manufacturing sector. Employment in sectors of
education and health services, construction and natural resources,
transportation and utilities, financial activities, leisure and hospitality,
and trade remained constant. The sectors experiencing some payroll growth
were information and business services, and government. In sum, Portage
County total nonfarm employment rose by a net 300 positions.
The retailer confidence survey results are listed in Table
8. Our local groups of merchants believe that total sales and store
traffic are at about the same level as a year ago. They also believe that
store traffic and sales three months from now will be only slightly higher
than last year’s numbers. Lastly, the results for this quarter are just
marginally higher than last quarter’s figures.
Help wanted advertising remains a good barometer of the direction of the
local labor market (Table 9). The help wanted
advertising index in Portage County declined from 76 to 70 over the past
twelve months, meaning that local labor market conditions have declined from
third quarter 2005. Similarly, the U.S. help wanted advertising fell from
37 to 31, signaling a slowing in job generation.
Table 10 and Table 11 present
measures of local family financial distress. The number of new applications
rose from 253 to 254, essentially remaining unchanged from third quarter
2005. However, the total caseload expanded from 4,957 to 5,424 or by 9.4
percent from third quarter 2005. During the same time period new employment
claims declined from 159 to 151 or by 4.7 percent whereas total claims
remained at virtually the same level, 948 versus 949.
Similar to what’s happening at the national level, residential construction
in the local area was off the pace of a year ago (Table
12). Residential permits were down 28.8 percent and their estimated
value was nearly 25 percent lower than a year ago. The number of new
housing units was down by 36 percent. During the same period the number of
residential alteration permits fell by about 4 percent; however, their
estimated value increased by almost 15 percent. In general, higher interest
rates have had a negative effect on the residential housing market.
Nonresidential construction has fared much better than residential building
activity (Table 13). The number of permits issued
reached 17 in third quarter 2006 and their estimated value was nearly $6.5
million. Also, a lot of activity was registered in the business alteration
category. A total of 43 permits were issued in the area with an estimated
value of nearly $8 million. We do not calculate percentage changes for
nonresidential activity, because it tends to be a very volatile sector of
the economy. However, it is safe to say that the figures from third quarter
2006 are very robust and compare favorably to historic norms. |
