OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY
                                 
                         3rd Quarter, 1995
                  (July, August, September 1995)


Third Quarter, 1995 gross income was up 10.8 percent over Third
Quarter, 1994.  All major industry sectors with the exception of
the two natural resources sectors posted positive growth numbers.
These increases ranged from 5 percent in retail trade to 25.7
percent in the manufacturing sector.  Within manufacturing,
transportation equipment was up 68.7 percent, although some part of
that increase was due to the timing of reported business income.
If the growth in transportation equipment were factored out, the
manufacturing sector would still be up over 11 percent.  (The large
increase (73.5 percent) in miscellaneous food products was due to a
SIC classification change.)

The gross income decline in the natural resource sector,
agriculture, forestry and fishing is not indicative of overall
income changes in those industries.  The 11.8 percent decline in
mining and quarrying was mainly the result of a 41.4 percent
decline in reported gross income for metal mining.

The service sector showed strong growth with a year-to-year
increase of 9.7 percent.  Business services was up 14.1 percent
largely as the result of a 40.5 percent increase in advertising
services.  Motion picture theaters and productions continued its
strong growth with a 39.7 percent increase.  The very large
increase in other business (963.7 percent) was due entirely to a
temporary allocation of SIC designations to a batch of new business
registrations.  The finance, insurance and real estate sector had
an overall increase of 9.7 percent on the strength of a 17.2
percent increase in financial services.  Real estate was up 3.1
percent while insurance and other financial services were both
down.

The utilities and transportation sectors showed strong overall
growth with a 20 percent increase in the communication and
utilities sector and a 9.3 percent increase in transportation and
allied services.  The highest growth areas were other utilities
(within the utilities sector) up 57.3 percent, communication
(services) up 25.3 percent, and motor freight and warehousing up
17.3 percent.  Both electric and gas companies reported declines in
gross income.

Although retail trade was up a nominal 5 percent, wholesale trade
was up 7.6 percent.  Within wholesale trade, durable goods was up
7.2 percent and nondurable goods 7.9 percent.  Nondurable goods
showed a somewhat surprising decline in groceries and related
products, down 8.1 percent, but this was more than offset by a
nearly $400 million increase in farm-product raw materials, the
result of high grain prices and production.  Durable goods was led
by a 14.1 percent increase in sporting, recreational equipment and
a 9.6 percent increase in electrical goods.

Retail trade had many ups and downs in individual retail industries
which resulted in only a 5 percent increase.  Hardware stores
continued with a strong increase (43.5 percent), nurseries, garden
supplies was up 7.8 percent and variety stores up 17.4 percent.
Other strong retailers were apparel and accessories up 17.7 percent
and furniture, furnishings, etc., up 12 percent.  The nominal 1.8
percent gain in eating and drinking establishments is understated
due to some SIC reclassifications.  The dollar volume leader in the
retail trade sector, automotive dealers, was up only 3.6 percent.

Overall, stronger growth than expected due to strong manufacturing
and service sector growth and strong wholesale trade increases in
spite of slow growth in the retail trade sector.  The consumers
appeared to slow their spending in third quarter, but the
underlying expectation of business is that consumer spending will
be stronger in fourth quarter.  We’ll wait and see if the data
proves this expectation correct.