The Wausau economy enjoys an incredibly low unemployment rate of just 2.7 percent. Moreover, employment, even though constrained by tight labor market conditions, continues to grow. Most of the industrial sectors posted solid gains, and retail sentiment remains positive. Similarly the help wanted advertising index shows the demand for workers remains strong. Further, construction activity and the financial statistics suggest that the local economy continues to expand. 

     The employment picture remains bright for the industrial sectors in the Wausau area (Table 7). Manufacturing and trade each added 600 jobs to their payrolls since last year, and similarly services gained 500 positions. Meanwhile, government employment was unchanged and construction employment is estimated to be about 100 fewer than last September. In sum, there were approximately 1,600 people added to Marathon county businesses, which represents a gain of about 2.6 percent. 

     The CWERB's retailer confidence survey shows that local merchants believe total sales and traffic are better than a year ago (Table 8). Moreover, they remain relatively upbeat with regard to the future level of sales and traffic. However, even though this group is expressing optimism with regard to future activity, their overall level of enthusiasm has been declining since the peak level of 1995. 

     Help wanted advertising is a barometer of local labor market conditions
(Table 9). The index for Wausau has detained from 164 to 154, or about 6 percent in our year over comparison. Thus, even though the index has declined it still remains at a high level. However the long term view of the situation shows the index detaining from the 1995 peak period when it stood well at over 200 points. 

     Public assistance claims data are collected on a county‑wide basis (Table 10). The results for 3rd Quarter show that public assistance is at a very low level. The number of new applications on a monthly average basis is just 20 and total caseload is now at 22. Clearly the threats of the state of Wisconsin's W2 plan has had an impact on these results. For example, the total caseload figure has been trending sharply downward since the early part of 1995. 

     Unemployment claims data on a weekly average basis is a measure of local family financial distress (Table 11).  Given the closing of a local food processing manufacturer, we see that new claims have risen from 149 to 193 over the year. Further, total claims have risen by 131 cases. Even though this quarter's results indicate an increase in the total caseload, this measure has been trending lower since the end of 1995. 

     Residential construction activity was quite brisk during 3rd Quarter (Table 12). Every category of activity exceeded last year's levels. New permits totaled 91 with an estimated value of $10.4 million. This construction represents the building of 110 housing units. Residential alteration permits reached 309 and the value of said activity is $1.9 million. Thus, it appears that a good deal of building activity took place in the local area. 

     More good news can be reported for nonresidential construction in the Wausau area (Table 13). The number of permits issued during 3rd Quarter was 22 and they were valued at $6.2 million. Alteration activity resulted in 52 permits being issued during the period with an estimated value of $5.5 million. The largest part of this figure is associated with the alteration being done to the local hospital. No percentage changes are given in this table because of the volatile nature of this type of activity. 

     We also see in the report that financial statistics for 3rd Quarter 1997 were well ahead of last year's totals (Table 14).  Bank deposits climbed by $74.6 million in our sample of local financial institutions, a gain of 6.3 percent. Bank lending expanded to an even greater degree. Loan activity grew by $85.8 million or by 8.6 percent from a year ago. These numbers suggest that the economy is continuing to expand at a decent pace.