Industry employment in Table 7 shows that manufacturing and government payrolls are lower than last year. The respective decline for each sector was 200 and 500. Services and construction meanwhile each added 100 positions to their payrolls. Trade sector employment was unchanged from a year ago. Overall then these five sectors contracted by a net 500 positions, or approximately 1.5 percent. The largest part of the contraction can be attributed to the reported decline in government employment.

     Retailer confidence (Table 8) in the Stevens Point-Plover area remains at an elevated level. Retail activity is a good barometer of the overall health of the local economy. Local merchants tell the CWERB that total sales and traffic compared to the previous year were modestly ahead of the pace of a year ago. They also expect to see modest improvements taking place in sales and store traffic for this Christmas. Hopefully this will materialize because the Christmas selling season is crucial to the long run financial health of most retailers.

     Help wanted advertising (Table 9) in the local area is at a record level. The index for the greater Stevens Point area reached 323 in September. This means there are 3.2 jobs being advertised for every one job in the base year. However, a portion of the advertising is from employers who are located outside the region. Because of labor shortages, firms from all over the state are searching for skilled workers. Thus, not all of the advertising is local in nature. Nonetheless area residents can potentially benefit from the greater number of employment opportunities.

     A measure of local family distress is public assistance claim (Table 10) data. New applications moved sharply higher in 3rd Quarter 1998. A grand total of 17 new cases were reported in Portage county. The good news is that the new cases were offset by a decline in previously existing cases. This is reflected in the slight contraction in the total caseload figure for Portage county. The total caseload fell by 10, or by 0.6 percent from last year. Another measure of local family financial distress is unemployment claim (Table 11) data. For 3rd Quarter new claims fell slightly, from 52 to 48. Moreover, total claims declined as well, contracting from 142 to 132. These numbers are in contrast to the reported softness in the employment data for Portage county.

     Residential construction (Table 12) activity in the local area has been very robust for the better part of the last decade. The number of residential permits issued is up 26.1 percent and the value associated with this activity is 80.4 percent higher than last year. At the same time the number of new housing units increased 53.7 percent. In contrast the number of residential alteration permits contracted by 32.9 percent, while the value of these alterations was 4.0 percent lower than the previous year.

     Nonresidential construction (Table 13) was quite strong in Portage county. The number of permits issued was 16 and they had an estimated value of $3.8 million. The most impressive aspect of this quarter's results, however, is the area's alteration activity. The number of alteration permits reached 57 and their value was estimated at $4.3 million.

     Financial statistics for the area are presented in Table 14. This sample of area financial institutions indicates that bank deposits contracted from $287.1 to $278.8, or 2.9 percent over the past month. Bank lending levels were about the same as in 3rd Quarter 1997. In 1998 loans stood at $319 million compared to $320 million in 1997.