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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040091
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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HELP-WANTED INDEX SIGNALS FEWER JOBS DOWN THE LINE

An index measuring national labor demand continues to stagnate.

The Help-Wanted Advertising Index registered 93 points in January, the Conference Board reported Wednesday. The New York-based business research organization said that was 2 points less than December but up 8 points from its January 1992 level.

The index measures the volume of help-wanted classified advertising in 51 major U.S. newspapers. Advertising volume is considered an indicator of the supply of jobs regionally and nationally.

In the South Atlantic region, including Virginia, the index stood at 99 points in January, down from 103 in December but up from 84 a year earlier.

"The economic recovery is not triggering a recovery in anything like patterns seen in the past," said Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein.

"This suggests that once genuine labor market recovery does develop . . . new job openings will not be as strong in this expansion as in the past. No more than modest job growth can be expected for the rest of 1993, 1994 and perhaps well into 1995," he said. - Staff report

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