|
The
local expansion continued during fourth quarter 1988. Total
employment and nonagricultural payrolls moved to all-time highs
regardless of the time of year. The unemployment rate fell to
4.7 percent, the lowest level seen since the early 1970s. The
performance of Wood
County was
closely paralleled by
Portage and
Marathon counties.
Many of the variables considered in the report support the
expansion thesis.
National and local
variables point toward an expansionary period. For example,
local business and merchant sentiment about the future is not
the least bit pessimistic. Moreover, construction and help
wanted advertising give additional evidence that the area
economy still has momentum.
Mirroring the national trend, the
Marshfield and
Wood County
economies expanded from a year ago. Table 7 shows that the
Marshfield
employment index is at 127.8 or 2.7 percent higher than in
December 1987. A breakdown of employment by major industrial
sector indicates that government, services, and construction
were big gainers. Moreover, the fourth quarter employment totals
for these sectors represent all time highs. On the negative side
of the situation, manufacturing employment slipped by 1.9
percent. Overall,
Wood
County
employment grew by a respectable 2.1 percent.
The
retail sector can give valuable insight into local conditions.
Therefore, the CWERB conducts a survey of local merchants in
order to gain this perspective. Table 8 displays the results of
the polling. Retailers said that store traffic was noticeably
heavier than last year and that store sales were moderately
better. When asked about their expectations, this group was
confident that store traffic and sales would be better than a
year ago. This bodes well for the
Marshfield
area economy. The likely direction of area payrolls is a matter
of considerable importance and should command much attention.
The help wanted advertising index is a method to estimate this
movement.
Table 9 tells us that advertising is almost twice as
great as in 1980. Furthermore, it was up almost 12 percent from
just a year ago. This advertisement will eventually translate
into higher employment and greater income for the local area.
Table
10 and Table 11 give clues into local family financial distress. The
number of new applications for public assistance was up by 2
while the total caseload was lower by 74. For the United States
unemployment claims were higher than a year ago. This trend
holds true for the
Marshfield area as well as for
the cities of Stevens
Point and
Wausau.
Data in Table 11 show that initial and total claims were
substantially higher than last year. The layoffs at Tombstone
Pizza may have contributed to the sitlia'tion by affecting some
local area residents.
Construction activity
is a leading economic indicator. In other words, this type of
activity usually preceeds a broader advancement.
Table 12 lists
the results for fourth quarter. All categories except one were
higher than twelve months ago. Despite higher interest rates,
the number of housing units was up by nearly thirty percent from
fourth quarter 1987. In sum, this precursor for general economic
expansion brings very positive news.
In conjunction with
this, nonresidential construction data in Table 13 also indicate
a higher level of activity than a year ago. The estimated value
of new structures has reached a new benchmark regardless of the
quarter. This suggests that the local economy should continue on
its upward trend.
Marshfield financial
statistics can be found in Table 14.
Clark County employment statistics can be found in
Table 15 and Table 16.
|
