The three-county area experienced a dramatic decline in seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates. Further, employment levels were moderately higher in the region this quarter. Marathon and Wood counties paced the expansion while Portage county payrolls declined slightly. Total employment rose in each of the major employment classifications except for the government sector. Thus, total industrial sector employment expanded by 1.8 percent during the year. Sales tax distributions rose in Portage and declined in Marathon county. Lastly, business executives believe that economic conditions have improved and are likely to continue to do so in the quarter ahead. 

     Seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates fell in all reporting areas. Portage, Marathon, and Wood counties seasonally unadjusted rates declined to the incredibly low levels of 3.0, 3.5, and 2.5 percent respectively (Table 2). The CWERB labor force weighted unemployment rate for Central Wisconsin rocketed downward from 4.0 to 3.0 percent over the course of the year. Likewise, Wisconsin's unemployment rate contracted from 4.1 to an amazing 2.9 percent and the United States rate fell from 5.6 to 5.4 percent. Thus, labor market conditions are becoming tighter for employers. 

     Total employment for our various reporting units is shown in Table 3. Seasonally unadjusted total employment payrolls rose in every area except for Portage County. Marathon and Wood counties payrolls expanded by 800 and 1,200. For Central Wisconsin total employment grew by 1,700 positions or a modest 1.2 percent. There are now 141.2 thousand people employed in our three-county area. During the same period Wisconsin employment inched upward by 0.4 percent over the year. 

     Central Wisconsin employment by major non‑farm sector indicates that payrolls grew by a modest 1.8 percent, climbing from 130.8 to 133.1 thousand (Table 4). Manufacturing and services in the three county area expanded by 900 positions each. Meanwhile, firms in the trade and construction industries added 1,000 and 300 persons respectively to their operations. Government, however, was lower in employment falling from 16.8 to 16.0 thousand. Thus, approximately 2.3 thousand net jobs were added by area employers. 

     County sales tax distribution numbers are presented in Table 5. Please note the figures have been lagged to better reflect activity during third quarter. Also, one must remember that this is just a barometer of economic conditions because it does not capture all activity taking place. Activity by nonprofit organizations and the purchases of some types of goods and services are not taxed. Portage county collections totaled nearly $800 thousand up by 7.4 percent from the same period as a year ago. Marathon county collections were about at the same level as the year before falling from $1.7 million to $1.6 million over the same period. 

     The Table 5A and Table 5B show how nonfarm sectors of the economy have performed relative to each other over the past five years.  Clearly the services sector has demonstrated the most growth and is by far the largest source of jobs for central Wisconsin residents.  Over 45,000 people are now employed in this sector of the regional economy.  Trade has been the other sector to exhibit a high degree of economic growth.  Meanwhile, manufacturing employment has increased but to a much lesser degree.  Government and construction, while important to our economy, are not the dominant sources of growth and employment in our economy.

     The CWERB's confidence survey of regional business executives is presented in Table 6. This group believes national and local conditions are somewhat improved when compared to a year ago. Their forecast for the future indicates that economic matters at the national and local levels plus those in their particular industry should be better than during the same time a year ago. It should be pointed out, there has been a significant rebound in their confidence levels when compared to those of June.