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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993                   TAG: 9305080110
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL                                LENGTH: Medium

OUTLOOK FOR REAL FOLKS QUITE UNLIKE STATISTICS

Pete Pomeroy squatted over a well-worn lawn mower in the well-worn service bay of the gas station he's run for 50 years, wrench in hand, head down, thinking how he would describe the jobs outlook in his area.

"No work, not around here," he said with finality.

Interviews with people approached at random - some working, some not - in the relatively prosperous Shenandoah Valley in Northern Virginia tell an unhappy story that belies economists' optimism about the national labor market.

Pomeroy is working, but barely. "If it weren't for these lawn mowers, there wouldn't be any work," he said. After 50 years in business on East Main Street, he doesn't pump much gas. Car repair work has disappeared. He's resigned himself to closing the station, and he doesn't hold out much hope for the economy at large.

"I don't see any chance for improvement. Wish I did."

The Labor Department counts 8.8 million unemployed people in America, plus another 1.1 million who want to work but have given up the search. There's no statistical category for people like Pomeroy, whose work is withering away.

The statistics suggest a modestly improving labor market, but Greg Sanner, for one, doesn't want to hear it. A carpenter who hasn't had steady work for months, Sanner, 32, ignores the good-one-day, bad-the-next flow of economic news.

"In my trade, things are going to get worse. I don't care what the statistics say," he said as he filled out unemployment insurance forms in Winchester.

"I'm scared to death to take money out of my savings if I'm going to be out of a job tomorrow," he said.

There is no "if" for Charles Winkler, who has been looking for a job since he was mustered out of the Army 11 months ago. With his 11 1/2 years of Army communications experience, including duty in the Persian Gulf, Winkler, 35, figured he could find a job with a telephone company, but that and other plans have fallen flat.

"I've seen a lot of ads for jobs around here, but they're all at minimum wage," he said. "You keep looking and if you aren't there two days ahead of everybody else, you don't get anything. I keep telling myself I've got to keep my sanity." - Associated Press

by CNB