Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 17, 1993 TAG: 9309170062
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Employment Commission said the Roanoke region's economy continued to get boosts from very strong business-service, health-service and local-government sectors.
Manufacturing, off 100 jobs or 0.5 percent from last year, held its own in spite of the closing of the Gardner-Denver plant and defense-related cuts.
The commission said merger of Dominion Bankshares Corp. with First Union Corp. in March "has through July produced little net change in that sector's employment."
For the second month in a row, trade employment was affected by the gradual closing of the Sears Telecatalog Center. In July, that sector was off 700 jobs from a year earlier.
Nonagricultural employment in Virginia increased 0.6 percent, or 17,900 jobs, and stood at nearly 2.86 million. This was an improvement from the 0.3 percent annual growth rate recorded in June, but still was below the 1.3 percent annual gains registered in the early months of this year.
The tourism industry, whose employment level was adversely affected in June by late school closings that delayed travel, bounced back in July.
The smallest number of summer vacation plant closings in 14 years helped prop up a manufacturing job level that has been gradually reduced by defense layoffs in chemicals and shipbuilding.
The few vacation shutdowns this year indicate that plant inventories are low and probably foretell stable business conditions in the last half of 1993.
As usual, the commission said, nonfarm employment was reduced by about 22,000 government jobs and 4,000 service jobs in June and August as 10-month nonteaching public and private school workers were removed from payrolls for the summer.
Half of Virginia's eight major employment divisions have added workers since July 1992 and half registered job losses. Sectors hiring workers, however, did so in greater numbers than those reducing staffs.
The commission said most of the job growth continued to be in the new and small specialized service industry firms.
Services grew 2.4 percent, government 1.3 percent, finance 1 percent and construction 0.7 percent. Sectors employing fewer people than last year were manufacturing, trade, transportation and mining.
\ Employment in Virginia Metro areas\ July '93 July '92 change\ Charlottesville 69,600 67,800 +2.7%\ Northern Va. 771,600 764,200 +1.0%\ Hampton Roads 592,100 587,200 +0.8%\ Roanoke 126,500 125,600 +0.7%\ Lynchburg 76,800 76,300 +0.7%\ Richmond 465,800 462,800 +0.6%\ Danville 40,300 40,200 +0.2%\ Bristol 33,300 33,300 .0%\ STATE 2,857,200 2,839,300 +0.6%\
by CNB