Sales tax receipts on general merchandise reportedly are running ahead of projections in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. Retail chains generally report good revenues and earnings. But tourism is the soft side of household spending. Visits at national parks and monuments in western regions of the district are trailing 1996 by as much as 20 percent. Canoe outfitters in northern Minnesota describe bookings as somewhat slack, and recurring rain storms have slowed other summer recreation activities in Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula.
Fishing resorts describe moderate, steady business.
It is just hard to get people. Such labor market tightness dominated the discussion at a July meeting of CEOs from major firms at the Minneapolis Fed. Only in Montana and the Upper Peninsula are labor markets somewhat slack and unemployment rates above the national average. Employers report increasing wage pressures and renewed increases in health care costs after a two-year hiatus. But product prices for intermediate and final goods remain quiescent.