DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997             TAG: 9703120471

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

HAMPTON ROADS' JOB GROWTH ABOUT 2.4% IN 1996

Hampton Roads added more jobs last year than previously expected, posting job growth of about 2.4 percent, the Virginia Employment Commission announced Tuesday.

The region had been showing only a 1 percent gain in jobs, but that was based on a monthly sampling of businesses, explained William F. Mezger, senior economist at the VEC.

Each February the VEC updates its previous year's figures based on more accurate unemployment insurance tax records. That new calculation showed a 2.4 percent increase, or about 16,000 jobs.

``Hampton Roads was a little bit stronger than what the figures had been showing,'' Mezger said.

The retail and service sectors added more jobs than the VEC thought, Mezger said, and those are vital employment sectors for the region.

Those revisions were released Tuesday along with an upbeat January unemployment report. Unemployment normally rises in January because stores lay off workers hired for the holidays.

But Virginia's 4.5 percent unemployment rate in January was the lowest rate for that month since a 4.3 percent rate recorded in January 1989, the VEC said.

Hampton Roads' rate rose only slightly from December to January: to 4.9 percent from 4.6 percent.

The state and Hampton Roads jobless rates should continue to improve in coming months, Mezger said. The highest months for unemployment are normally January and February.

``The only problem we've had in Virginia in recent weeks is Best went out of business and some other catalog retailers are consolidating,'' Mezger said.

In Hampton Roads, Suffolk's unemployment rate jumped to 6.9 percent in January from 5.4 percent. Mezger said that was attributable to the annual slowdown of peanut processors.

Williamsburg's rate more than doubled, rising to 12.9 percent in January from 6.2 percent in December. That jump is normal for this time of year, Mezger said, when tourism slows dramatically in Colonial Williamsburg. ILLUSTRATION: [Chart]

JANUARY 1997 UNEMPLOYMENT

SOURCE: The Virginia Employment Commission

[For copy of chart, see microfilm] KEYWORDS: UNEMPLOYMENT

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