The unemployment rates fell in all reporting areas to incredibly low levels (Table 2).  Marathon and Portage counties saw their unemployment rates drop well below 3 percent. Wood county also experienced a significant decline when its rate declined to 3.1 percent. Overall, Central Wisconsin's labor force weighted unemployment rate fell from 3.4 to just 2.7 percent in 4th Quarter 1999.  Wisconsin's rate continued to tumble downward hitting an unbelievable low 2.6 percent.  The U.S. experienced a similar decline.  The rate for the nation is at 3.7 percent.

     More good news comes from the employment statistics for our area (Table 3).  Wood county lead the employment expansion with a 2.5 percent gain to its payrolls.  Portage and Marathon added 1.4 and 0.4 percent respectively to their total employment figures.  In sum, Central Wisconsin's total employment rose from 147.5 to 149.3 thousand over the period for a respectable 1.2 percent gain.  In this period of very tight labor market conditions, gains of any size are difficult to achieve. This is clearly reflected by the fact that Wisconsin's total employment was virtually unchanged from last year and the nation's total employment figure expanded by about just 1.5 percent over the same time period.

     Industrial sector employment for our three-county region did well considering the tight labor market conditions across the state (Table 4).  Manufacturing and services posted gains of 0.3 and 4.4 percent respectively.  Likewise, trade and government payrolls grew by 3.9 and 4.9 percent.  Only construction was unchanged from last year.

     County sales tax distribution in Table 5 represent estimates by the state.  Actual figures were not available because of computer related problems.  The state estimates that Portage county sales tax collections were unchanged from a year ago.  For Marathon the estimate is that sales tax collections grew by about 3 percent.  Given the health of the local economy upward revisions in these numbers are likely.

     Relating to the Marshfield county version of the report, Figure 5A and Figure 5B depict employment in Central Wisconsin's key industrial sectors and is presented in the report to give the reader an historic overview of how these sectors have been growing over the past five years.  The figures clearly show that services have grown more rapidly than any other sector.  Further, trade related employment will soon surpass manufacturing as the second most important source of employment for area residents.

     Business confidence rebounded in the region during 4th Quarter 1999.  Our panel of regional business leaders gave a nod of approval (Table 6) to recent economic changes at the national and local levels.  However, the largest rebound in sentiment occurred in their assessment of future conditions.  There was a major increase in their overall assessment of future conditions at the national, local, and industry levels.  Of special note was the mark of 60 tabulated for the expected changes in their particular industries.  This bodes well for the people of our region.