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The following is a
brief summary of the economic results presented in the report. The
unemployment rate in the county is lower than a year ago. Total employment
in Wood County is lower over the course
of the year. Industrial sector employment is down by 0.2 percent from
December 2004. Public assistance claims were slightly lower, but
unemployment claims were generally higher. Manufacturing employment in
Wisconsin continues to contract and inflation adjusted manufacturing wages have
declined over the last three years. Lastly, the labor force in Wood County has been trending lower
over the past three years.
Employment numbers
based on a state survey of Wood County business firms are given
in Table 7. Total nonfarm employment is estimated to
have contracted by 0.2 percent over the year. The manufacturing sector
continues to be the sector that has most influenced this contraction.
Since fourth quarter last year, the manufacturing sector is estimated to have
lost 400 positions. In contrast, the transportation, education and health
services, and leisure and hospitality sectors continued to add employees to
their respective payrolls.
Figure 1 presents Wisconsin paper manufacturing employment levels from the beginning of 2003 to near
the end of 2005. Over the three year time span, paper manufacturing
employment has contracted from 41.5 thousand to about 36.5 thousand. The
decline of five thousand jobs equates to a 12 percent reduction in these
relatively high paying manufacturing jobs. Stiff world-wide competition
and overcapacity issues have played a major role in this situation.
Table
8 gives the help wanted advertising index for Wisconsin Rapids. The
index rose from 73 to 78 over the past year. The 5 point gain represents a
7 percent increase in this measure of local labor market conditions. This
index suggests the employment situation is stable in the area. Meanwhile,
the U.S. index rose by only 3 points or by 8.3 percent during the same period.
There are several
measures of local family financial distress in this part of the report.
Public assistance claims on a monthly average basis for Wood County decreased from 92 to 91 (Table
9). Thus, for all intent and purpose there was no change in this
measure. Data on unemployment claims for Wood County are given in
Table 10. The number of new unemployment claims on
a weekly average basis increased slightly from 279 to 286, or 2.5 percent.
Likewise, the number of total claims climbed from 1,247 to 1,290 or by 3.4
percent. In sum, it appears that there has been a modest increase in the
level of family financial distress in Wood County.
Figure 2 displays Wisconsin manufacturing average earnings. Over the past three years, wages
have been trending slowly upwards. In 2003, the maximum average weekly
wage in manufacturing stood at about $655. In 2005, the maximum average
weekly wage was at about $670. This represents a gain of about 2.3 percent
over the three year time period. Given that the rate of inflation was
higher than this over the three year period, real wages in manufacturing
actually declined over the period.
Figures 3 thru 6
present information on the labor markets conditions in
Wood County.
Figure 3 shows that total employment has been declining over the past three
years. This outcome was primarily driven by problems in the manufacturing
sector. From the peak of 39,000 jobs in 2003 to the peak of 38,200 jobs in
2005, approximately 1,300 net jobs have been lost in the county. Over the
same period, Figure 4 and
Figure 5
shows the number of people unemployed and the unemployment rate were relatively
stable over the period. In light of the decline in total employment, the
only way this result could have happened is for the labor force to have
contracted.
Figure 6 confirms this conclusion. The labor force
declined from 42,250 to 39,750 over the past three years. For the most
part, this means people have either stayed in the area and dropped out of the
labor force or moved away in search of employment. |
