Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305070619
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Even as state employment officials last week reported the Roanoke Valley's jobless rate hit a two-year low in March, they warned the positive trend likely would not be reflected in the April numbers, due in June.
Job losses in the January-through-March quarter are sure to increase the ranks of the unemployed, the Virginia Employment Commission's chief economist predicted, ticking off the acquisition of Dominion Bankshares Corp. and layoffs at Gardner-Denver Mining & Construction.
Trouble is, the VEC's job services manager in Roanoke isn't seeing many folks from Gardner-Denver or Dominion requesting jobless benefits or even seeking counseling to find new jobs.
"We can't figure out what happened to the Dominion people," Marjorie Skidmore said in an interview. "The first layoff [on April 1] was 180 [workers] but there were only 35 who registered for unemployment."
Dominion, now part of First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., last month established what it called a Transaction Center in Roanoke County, where displaced employees may pursue job prospects and talk with counselors. The VEC approved 20 hours of counseling per week at the First Union center, Skidmore said, but the counselor is spending only four hours each week there.
"We can't figure out where they are. They may be waiting until school's out and then moving their families out" of the valley in pursuit of more job opportunities elsewhere.
Then, too, the regional economy - as well as First Union National Bank of Virginia - may be absorbing workers cut loose in the first three months of the year, a possible testament to the economy's strength.
A survey released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found strong optimism for the national and regional economies. Manufacturing activity in Virginia grew in March and April and is expected to improve; retailing strengthened, the survey found; and the furniture market appears to be the strongest in years.
State employment figures show the Roanoke Valley's work force increased by 2,340 workers in the quarter ended March 31, compared to the first quarter of 1992. And the unemployment rate for the same periods dropped nearly a full percentage point, from 5.9 percent to 5 percent, suggesting a relative improvement in the regional economy.
But there may be another explanation for the comparative absence of Dominion workers - many of them mid-level, white-collar executives with college degrees - among the unemployed:
"The people I work with, which I guess are considered white-collar professionals, don't really work with the VEC," said a First Union-Virginia computer systems analyst scheduled to lose his job in October. "Most of their jobs are not in the salary range I need to make. Shoot, really good jobs aren't advertised; they're [found by] word of mouth."
"That has been a long-term impression of the VEC, and one they're anxious to shed," said Bill Pistner, employee relations manager for First Union-Virginia. Generally speaking, senior employees displaced by cutbacks are less likely to turn to government agencies for help finding work.
The computer analyst, who asked not to be identified because he still may land a job with First Union-Virginia, said jobs comparable to his Dominion assignments invariably are found outside the Roanoke Valley.
"Typically, they are companies that are headquartered" in Richmond; Charlotte, N.C.; or Greensboro, N.C., he said, "something we don't have much of anymore."
There are exceptions. He talks enviously of a fellow computer analyst, included in the first wave of Dominion layoffs, who managed to keep her severance pay and find a job in the Roanoke office of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Virginia - paying slightly more money.
It's more likely, the VEC's Skidmore said, that displaced white-collar workers will be forced to settle for lower-paying jobs or to look elsewhere, an especially thorny dilemma for folks eager to stay in the Roanoke Valley.
by CNB