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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 8, 1993                   TAG: 9306080332
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A WINNING STREAK ON THE JOB FRONT

But, lately, the sun has been peeping through the clouds.

Last week came the long-awaited announcement that Ohio's Connex Pipe Systems Inc. will move its corporate headquarters and manufacturing center to Botetourt County - bringing with it 200 new jobs for the valley.

Last month, Roanoke welcomed the Transkrit Corp. from New York. A change of venue for its headquarters and manufacturing operations is expected to bring 180 new jobs by January.

And there have been other recent upbeat developments: The expansion of Roanoke's 40-year-old New River Electrical Corp., announced in March, will mean new employment. First Union, after its merger with Dominion Bankshares, said it hopes to create 400 new positions here - replacing many that the merger cost the region.

A couple of hundred new jobs here, a hundred or so there, and pretty soon you're back in business.

In fact, the Roanoke area's unemployment rate (4.2 percent) is at its lowest level in two years. While state joblessness also is shrinking - dropping below 5 percent this spring for the first time since November 1990 - Roanoke continues to lead most areas of Virginia in new-job growth.

Granted, none of these developments alleviates the pain of residents who have lost work in recent months, due to the bank merger and decisions by other local businesses to close, consolidate, move elsewhere or downsize.

Nor do they mean that people now can rest easy on the assumption that the local economy is on an ever-upward course. On the contrary, the region's job market - like that of most communities - is adjusting to powerful forces and accelerating change that will continue to cause shakedowns and shakeouts. The future is far from certain.

(Indeed, many of the new jobs coming here are doing so at the price of dislocation elsewhere - in part because costs of production, payroll especially, are lower in this part of the country.)

As surely as the world keeps spinning and changing, more jobs will disappear from our region's economy. It remains to be seen whether we can attract and grow enough new jobs to compensate for the losses, while spurring vitally needed growth.

But, surely, it's noteworthy that the cost of labor is not the only criterion for choosing a site. If it were, Connex and Transkrit would be in Mexico or somewhere else.

As their decision indicates, not only are local economic-development leaders working to sell the region, they enjoy a good array of assets to sell. Other respectable companies, ready to relocate, will continue to look us over; some will like what they see.

So - yes, this region's assets must be upgraded; competitors are improving theirs. But if we're keeping track of our progress, and we should, surely we ought to celebrate the successes, such as new jobs.

In a dog-eat-dog economy, you win some, you lose some. In recent weeks, we've been winning some. This is much to be preferred over losing.