ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990                   TAG: 9007030085
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JOBLESS RATE SEASONABLY UP

Scattered layoffs and college students' search for jobs raised Roanoke area unemployment rates to seasonal levels in May. But the number of people at work, both locally and statewide, also reached record levels, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Monday.

"It looks like the economy still has steam in it, but not as much as a year ago," said William F. Mezger, research economist for the VEC.

The state jobless rate rose from 3.4 percent in April to 3.7 percent in May, while the Roanoke area rate increased from a record low of 2.3 percent to 3.4 percent in the same period.

Unemployment rose in most Western Virginia areas in May. The national rate for May was 5.1 percent.

Mezger said the May rates were more normal than was April's low.

Roanoke's rate was better than the Lynchburg figure of 4.3 percent, Richmond-Petersburg's 3.6 percent and the Norfolk area rate of 4.2 percent. Northern Virginia led the state's major urban areas with a low of 2 percent.

The Roanoke area labor force increased by 2,540 people from April, the VEC said. Also contributing to the higher jobless rate were 1,100 new jobs, 1,440 students seeking work, laid-off workers at Singer and Rowe furniture factories and "a few people here and there," Mezger said. Service companies and local and state government each added 400 jobs in the Roanoke area, along with 300 in trade and 100 each in fabricated metals and machinery. Manufacturing rolls lost 200 people.

In the state, employment records were set by 735,600 service workers and 589,800 government employees, boosted by the hiring of 1,500 census workers. Service employees were hired by health-care centers and at tourist attractions, the VEC said.

Spring construction work brought 1,800 jobs to the state, but that was 1,600 below a year ago, the first annual reduction in that segment since 1982. Most of the construction slowdown was in Northern Virginia.

Mezger projected that the state's June jobless rate will be slightly higher - 3.8 percent or 3.9 percent - after high school students join college students in looking for jobs this summer.

State employment growth has slowed from an annual increase of 3.3 percent or 100,000 jobs to a 2.3 percent rate and 67,300 more jobs than a year ago.

Most of the state's layoffs have been in housing and auto-related industries, Mezger said.

Roanoke's average weekly factory wage in May was $457.06, up $8.17 from April but $2.85 less than a year ago. The average hourly pay rate was $11.63, up 12 cents from May and up 44 cents from a year ago.

The average number of factory hours worked in May was 39.3 a week, an increase of 0.3 from April but down 1.8 from a year ago. 


 by CNB