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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991                   TAG: 9104020598
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

DISABLED WORKERS SEEN AS SOLUTION TO LABOR SHORTFALL

"People with disabilities are a large and growing segment of our population, and today many more than before are able to pursue careers because of improving medical technology and the work of our rehabilitation facilities," Lawrence Framme, Virginia secretary for economic development, said Monday.

The state's pool of workers will drop as the population ages and fewer young people enter the work force, Framme said.

"We can meet labor shortfalls by utilizing all our talent - putting to greater use alternate labor sources - especially those traditionally underrepresented, like citizens with disabilities," Framme said.

Framme spoke at a ceremony at the University of Virginia's Alumni Hall honoring 110 Central Virginia employers who hire disabled workers.

Two-thirds of the 22 million physically disabled working-age Americans don't have jobs, Framme said. In Virginia the percentage is the same with 198,000, or 66 percent, of disabled working-age Virginians unemployed, he said.

State-funded facilities such as Central Virginia's Workshop V Inc., which employs some of its 164 disabled clients and places others in area businesses, generated more than $42 million in sales during 1990, he said.

Workshop V clients generated $650,000 in 1990 by making hammocks, emergency lights, telephone handsets for industries and providing janitorial services, Workshop V president Ron Enders said.

But recession struck Workshop V as it did other businesses, he said. A tight job market since late 1990 has reduced the number of openings for disabled workers.

One client, a deaf man working as a mechanical assembler at a firm that makes electronic gadgets, lost his job when the company had trouble getting new contracts, Enders said.

State funding has not kept up with Workshop V's costs, Enders said, so some staff positions have been cut, limiting the number of clients it can serve.

Framme offered some hope. The state's recession has bottomed out and recovery is beginning, he said.

"We've seen more inquiries in the last couple of months about industrial prospects than we were seeing in the fall," he said.

Despite an economic slowdown in late 1990, the state attracted about $1.17 billion in new capital investment that year, Framme said.

New industrial projects announced in 1990 will create 14,800 jobs, and Virginia exports increased 17 percent last year, he said.

"People seem to feel better," he said. "We've got troops coming back to Hampton Roads. The unemployment figures seem to be stabilizing, and I think retail sales will show some promise."