The Marshfield area economy generated a considerable amount of good news for Third Quarter 1995. The unemployment rate fell in the area to a very low level. Further, total employment in the county rose by a robust 3.2 percent. Nonfarrn seasonally unadjusted payrolls likewise increased by a healthy 3.5 percent rate. Merchants remain fairly optimistic about their situation but their assessment has been declining over the past year or so. Lastly, advertising in the local area by employers remains at elevated levels. 

     Wood county employment expanded by a net 1,439 jobs in the nonfarm sectors of the Wood county economy (Table 7). Thus, on a twelve‑month comparison basis, payrolls rose by a brisk 3.5 percent. Services added 1,118 people to its employment figure, manufacturing increased by 391, and trade added 205 jobs. However, construction employment fell by 163 and government employment is estimated to have declined by 112 positions. The CWERB Marshfield Employment Index estimates that employment rose by approximately 5.7 percent in the Marshfield area. 

     The CWERBs Retailer Confidence Index is presented in Table 8. Local merchants indicate that store traffic and sales were higher than a year ago. However, since early 1994 the response levels have been trending downward which means the rate increase has been judged to be declining for sales and traffic. Similarly, the response levels for expected store traffic and sales are positive which suggests improvement over last years activity levels. However, the trend has been one of falling response levels since about mid 1994. 

     Help wanted advertising remained strong during Third Quarter (Table 9). Even though the index was unchanged from last period, the level of advertising was substantial. Consider that the mark of 272 indicates there are 2.7 jobs being advertised for every one job in 1980. Since early 1993 the index has been trending sharply upwards. Clearly, employers located throughout the state are advertising on a state‑wide basis in search of qualified workers thus helping the local index to rise. 

     Data for Table 10, Public Assistance, is not available. A change over to a computerized system in Madison has delayed the release of the data. As soon as it becomes available on a regular basis it will once again be included in the report. 

     Table 11 gives us unemployment claim data for Wood county. Please note, as of July 1995 data are collected by county rather than by local office. Therefore, the data for Third Quarter 1995 is not directly comparable to that of Third Quarter 1994. In the future the data will become compatible and allow for meaningful comparison. For now, however, we can only report that the number of new claims was 35 and total claims was 107. 

     Residential construction in the Marshfield area was somewhat off the pace of a year ago (Table 12). Residential permits fell by 8.3 percent, the number of alteration permits issued declined by 13.4 percent, and the associated value of the alterations contracted by 26.5 percent. Further, the number of housing units slatted for construction remained unchanged from a year ago. Only the estimated value of the new construction rose, and in this case by a 13.2 percent rate from a year ago. 

     Table 13 presents the volatile nonresidential construction figures for Third Quarter. The number of permits issued was 15 with an estimated value of $949 thousand. The number of alteration permits issued reached 18 for Third Quarter 1995 with an estimated value of $545 thousand. Generally speaking, the amount of building activity in the Marshfield area was higher this year than last. 

     Table 14 presents bank statistics for the local area. Due to the great number of mergers that have taken place over the past year the numbers for 1995 are not directly comparable to those of 1994. At the national level the financial services industry is being swept by consolidation and mergers. Our area has not escaped the trend. However, when we cycle through into next year, the numbers will once again be comparable. Suffice it for this quarter that the amount of bank deposits was $270.4 million and loans stood at $239.6 million. 

     Table 15 and Table 16 present Clark county economic data. The data are presented because Clark county is an important market area for many Marshfield area businesses. In sum, every category of nonfarm employment is estimated to have increased from last year. Further, the unemployment rate has declined over the same period. Thus, the data seems to indicate a strengthening in the Clark county economy.