The Wausau area economy during third quarter 1992 saw its unemployment rate rise. However, this was, for the most part, due to the labor force growing more rapidly than the number of jobs being created, not as a result of falling total employment per se. Total employment in the area rose from 61.3 to 62.2 thousand over the course of the year. Furthermore, industrial sector employment was very stable, rising by 0.2 percent. 

     For third quarter, retailers were confident about the economy and said that matters are better than in 1991. Help wanted advertising is approximately 39 percent higher than a year ago at this time. Other positive developments include public assistance claims, which remained stable; strong construction activity, especially in residential construction; and bank lending, which is probably higher in the Wausau area than bank statistics indicate. However, previously announced layoffs in the area have pushed up the unemployment claims data in Marathon County reflecting the influence of a weak national economy on the local economy. 

     Marathon County nonfarm payroll data are presented in Table 7. Manufacturing, services, and government employment rose by 1100, 400, and 100 respectively since last September. The increases, however, were for the most part, offset by declines in trade and construction of 700 and 800 respectively. Thus, nonfarm employment remained stable from last year. In sum, the amount of employment rose by a negligible 100 positions to 54.7 thousand or 0.2 percent. 

     The retail sector represents the last stage in the production cycle. In Table 8 we can see that local merchants feel that store traffic and sales were definitely higher than one year ago during the same period. As a matter of fact, the panel of merchants remains as upbeat as they were last quarter. They also responded very positively with regard to their continued economic well‑being and future prospects for the local economy, anticipating substantial increases in both store traffic and sales over the year before. 

     The help wanted advertising index for Wausau rose from an unusually low 123 in third quarter 1991 to a more normal reading of 172 in 1992, Table 9. The index says that there are 1.7 jobs being advertised for every one job advertised in 1980. The national index rose ever so slightly over the year from 91 to 93 and indicates that a high level of sluggishness exists in the national economy. Even though newspaper advertising represents only a small portion of the number of positions available in the community, it is nonetheless a good barometer of the local labor market. 

     Public assistance claims on a monthly average basis are presented in Table 10. For both new applications and total caseload, the numbers have remained virtually unchanged over the year. Historically from 1987 through 1992 third quarter new public assistance claims have been 49, 21, 18, 17, 21, and 18. Further the total public assistance caseload for the same time period has been 210, 102, 99, 74, 88, and 90. These figures show a high degree of stability over time for the third quarter time period. 

     Recent layoffs in area firms have driven up the number of initial unemployment claims and, to a lesser extent, the total number of unemployment claims (Table 11). Once again, to give a historic perspective of the period from 1987 to 1992, initial unemployment claims for third quarter were 142, 165, 127, 157, 236, and 295, showing an upward trend over the past three years. For total unemployment claims, the totals for the same period were 963, 972, 853, 1010, 1515, and 1565, also showing a general upward trend. 

     Residential construction in Table 12 shows that the number of permits issued, and the estimated value of new residential construction rose by 10.3 and 24.7 percent respectively over last year's brisk activity levels. The number of housing units, residential alteration permits issued, and the estimated value of alteration permits were lower than last year by 14.8, 4.7, and 7.5 respectively, but it must be noted that last year was a very active period in the greater Wausau area. 

     Nonresidential construction measures in the Wausau area were within the historic ranges for these activities (Table 13). The number of permits issued, the estimated value of new structures, the number of business alteration permits issued, and the estimated value of business alterations were 10, $1,085 thousand, 27, and $1,824.3 thousand respectively in third quarter 1992. 

     Financial statistics for the Wausau area are given in Table 14. This sample of the local economy's financial institutions shows that deposits rose by $24 million dollars or 3.4 percent. Meanwhile, bank lending expanded by $16 million or 3.0 percent from a year ago. Even this number probably understates the amount of actual lending in the area. To the extent that banks sell loans in the secondary market in order to replenish their capacity to make local loans, we would expect the amount of actual lending to be higher than reported on their balance sheets.