Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993 TAG: 9306030041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The April rate was the best since the 3.4 percent reported in December 1990. It compared to 4.5 percent in March and 5.3 percent in April 1992.
William F. Mezger, research economist for the Virginia Employment Commission, reported that the number of people working in the Roanoke Valley was up 700 from March and was 2,500 more than a year earlier. The valley's job growth was second only to Lynchburg among Virginia's major metro areas.
Yet, like the lower jobless rates, those statistics may be deceiving.
Mezger said 600 more people were at work in the trade sector, most of them at the Sears Telecatalog operation - which closed at the end of May.
Because of the publicity surrounding the death of the Sears catalog, Mezger explained, orders poured into the company and Sears was forced to hire hundreds more people to work during April and May. Yet all of them were out of work by June.
Also, the financial services industry was down about 200, which was fewer jobless than had been expected after initial layoffs resulting from Dominion Bankshares Corp.'s acquisition by First Union Corp.
"A lot of shuffling is going on with the bank," Mezger said, so fewer people were laid off in the first wave of job terminations. He said it was reported that some executive positions were transferred out of town and some "routine" jobs came here.
He said he could not forecast what will happen as more bank jobs are terminated over the coming months.
Other job gains were mostly seasonal, he said, although there was a pickup in the real estate sector as well. He expected Roanoke to gain more construction jobs over the current 100 in the coming months.
Part of the April boost was in contrast to layoffs caused by the March 13 blizzard.
In the New River Valley, he said, the jobless rate remained fairly static; seasonal gains were offset by layoffs at the Radford arsenal.
The statewide rate fell from 5.2 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April.
April was the first time since November 1990 that the rate was below 5 percent, and it was the best month since then.
Virginia's economy continued to improve in April with the number of people working up 22,200 to 2.8 million, the VEC said.
"This was an about-normal March-April job increase and largely reflected hiring in tourist-related services and trade as the travel industry geared up for spring tours."
But the commission said it had expected a greater month-over-month increase in employment because of construction delays caused by the March snows.
Virginia's 301,500 factory production workers earned an average weekly wage of $440.24 in April. That was $14.82 more than in March and $13.06 more than in the prior April.
Also, the workweek increased by an hour in April to 40.5 hours and was 0.2 of an hour longer than the previous April.
The average hourly factory wage was $10.87, 10 cents above March and 27 cents more than last year.
All metropolitan areas experienced improved unemployment rates. The commission said Lynchburg had the biggest monthly and annual bounce because it was most affected by the March snow.
The commission projected jobless rates of 5 percent for May and 5.2 percent in June as students join the work force.
The report said summer job prospects should be better than last yea, "which was the worst summer job market in a decade."
Traditional employers for summer hires - government, banks and utilities - still are recovering from downsizings, according to the commission.
But it said prospects for students look good in food service, retailing and construction.
\ WESTERN VA. JOBLESS RATES
April 1993 March 1993 Bath County
% 18.1 %
Bedford, Bedford County 4.3 % 5.1 %
Bland County 4.2 % 4.0 %
Buchanan County 10.3 % 11.0 %
Carroll County 5.9 % 7.9 %
Covington-Clifton Forge 6.7 % 7.9 %
Craig County 6.7 % 7.2 %
Franklin County 4.6 % 3.9 %
Galax area 5.2 % 6.8 %
Grayson County 5.0 % 5.8 %
Lexington, Buena Vista 6.4 % 9.1 %
Martinsville area 4.8 % 5.1 %
Smyth County 8.71% 9.0 %
Tazewell County 8.4 % 9.2 %
Washington County 4.5 % 5.2 %
Wythe County 6.5 % 6.9 %
by CNB