The Stevens Point area economy continued to have some difficulties during third quarter 1990. However, there were a number of encouraging developments over the past twelve months. Areas of sluggishness include total employment in the county which was down from last year. Further, nonfarm employment fell by about 1.0 percent from September of 1989. On the bright side, the unemployment rate remains at a very low level, help wanted advertising has increased, construction activity, both residential and nonresidential, was generally above last year's levels, and financial statistics for the area are stronger than one year ago.
 

     Reports from the Federal Reserve of Chicago suggest that the district's agricultural sector has strengthened over the course of the year. Of course this is a welcome development for our economy given that tensions in the Middle East, budgetary problems in Washington, and the massive amount of consumer and business debt threaten the national and local economies.
 

     Portage County industry employment is given in Table 7. Manufacturing, services, and government employment were lower than the previous year. Government employment for third quarter 1990 is probably understated due to reporting problems on the state level. Only trade and construction payrolls were higher than one year ago, up 400 and 70 jobs respectively. If we assume that government employment is really unchanged from a year ago, total nonfarm employment declined by approximately 260 positions or 1.0 percent from a year ago. Given the economic linkages that exist among the surrounding counties, it often is more appropriate to examine overall regional trends in employment to get a clearer understanding of the economic situation.
 

     The retailer confidence survey for the greater Stevens Point ‑ Plover area shows that store sales were somewhat better than last year, with store traffic being marginally lower, Table 8. For future prospects, we asked this group about expected sales and store traffic. Here the local merchant's responses were noticeably less optimistic than last quarter. The marks of 58 and 52 for sales and store traffic were very low from a historic point of view. This panel, which is usually quite optimistic about the future, seems guarded in its assessment of future activity. The retail sector is an important barometer of overall economic conditions because retail sales are the final link in the chain of economic events.
 

     Help wanted advertising after four consecutive quarters of decline in the Stevens Point area has risen (Table 9). For third quarter 1990 the barometer of local labor market conditions shows an 9.6 percent gain as compared to a nearly 17 percent drop at the national level. The gain here locally came as welcome news given the decline in help wanted advertising at the national level and signals an intention to increase hiring locally.
 

     Table 10 and Table 11 attempt to measure local family financial distress. New public assistance claims on a monthly average basis increased by 31.4 percent from 118 to 155 cases per month. In contrast the total caseload fell from an average of 1621 per month to 1344, a decline of 17.1 percent. The unemployment claim data for the area shows that new claims rose from an average of 24 to 30 cases per week for a 25 percent increase. Weekly average total unemployment claims rose by a much smaller 2.6 percent. Thus, the information presented in Tables 10 and 11 indicates that there has been some increase in the level of financial distress over the past twelve months.
 

     Residential construction and home sales nationally are very weak in many parts of the country, especially the northeast. However, Table 12 shows that a good deal of residential construction activity took place in and around our community. Residential permits issued, the value of new homes, and the number of housing units were all above last year's marks. Only the number of permits and the value of residential alterations were lower than the previous year. Similar good news comes from the nonresidential construction scene in Table 13. This type of activity increased in nearly all categories. Percentage changes are not given in this table due to the highly volatile and singular nature of this kind of economic activity.
 

     The financial statistics for this area are quite positive. Table 14 displays the lending and saving patterns of our local community over the past twelve months. Bank deposits increased by nearly $15.4 million or 5.1 percent. Bank lending also rose by a very healthy 7.0 percent or $15.3 million over the same time span. It appears that the so‑called credit crunch reported in other areas of the country is not apparent here in the local area.