The Marshfield‑Wood county economy experienced an historically low unemployment rate during Third Quarter. Moreover, both total and industrial sector payrolls expanded by respectable amounts over the past year. Most other indicators of economic activity suggested positive but modest growth taking place. Thus, the local economy continues to move forward at a steady pace. 

     Industrial sector employment in Wood county rose from 41.5 thousand to 42.1 thousand positions, or a modest 1.4 percent, from September 1996 (Table 7). Services lead all the sectors in terms of job generation, adding 900. All the other major sectors were unchanged, or contracted, from last year's levels. However, the Marshfield Employment Index seems to suggest that employment growth in these sectors was somewhat stronger in Marshfield than elsewhere in Wood county. For the record the index rose by a healthy 3.0 percent. 

     Local merchants in our quarterly sample are saying that sales and store traffic were somewhat better than last year's at the same time (Table 8). They also hold the opinion that the upcoming Christmas selling season will be stronger than last. Since about mid‑1995 this group of merchants has expressed about the same level of optimism. This would indicate that local merchants have expected about the same rate of growth to take place in sales and traffic over the duration of this period. 

     Help wanted advertising for the area was virtually unchanged from a year ago (Table 9). This parallels the stable situation that is occurring at the national level. The 273 reading for the local area means there are 2.7 jobs being advertised for every one job in the base year. Four years ago the index stood at just 170, which is one more indicator of how much of an improvement has taken place in the local job market. 

     A measure of local family distress is public assistance claim data (Table 10). The numbers for Wood county consist of AFDC, MA, and food stamps. Total caseload on a monthly average basis declined from 3,250 to 2,553 or 21.4 percent since last year. New application data are still not available due to computer system modernization problems encountered by the State of Wisconsin. These data will be contained in future reports as soon as ft becomes available. 

     Another barometer of family financial distress in the area is unemployment claim data (Table 11). This indicator shows that the local economy has experienced some restructuring. Both initial and total claims were higher than last years marks, 51 and 34 percent respectively. Since the beginning of 1995 both series have been trending upward. Thus, an increasing number of Wood county residents have experienced periods of unemployment. 

     Residential construction presented in Table 12 shows that activity was generally lower than a year ago. The exception to this statement was alteration activity which experienced a rather dramatic increase. Although the raw number changes are small, residential permits issued, their estimated value, and the number of units were 27 percent, 46 percent, and 39 percent lower than a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of alteration permits issued rose by a healthy 38 percent with a likewise increase in their estimated value.
 

     The volatile category of nonresidential construction is presented in Table 13. Thus, because of the inherent swings in this type of activity, no percentage changes are given. The number of permits issued was 12 for Third Quarter with an estimated value of $2.6 million. The number of business alteration permits was 14 and the value of this activity was listed at $1.1 million. 

     Marshfield area financial statistics are presented in Table 14. In our sample of local financial institutions, bank deposits increased by only 1.5 percent. However, bank lending rose by a more robust 5.3 percent over the same period. This type of data gives important insight into the direction and relative strength of the local economy. 

     The Clark county economic data are given in Table 15 and Table 16. Industrial sector employment in our rural neighbor increased by a scant 0.8 percent over the course of the year. However, good news can be reported in the manufacturing category where employment rose by 4.7 percent. Additionally, the unemployment rate fell from 4.4 percent to 3.7 percent over the past twelve months. Lastly, total employment increased by about 1.2 percent.