Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 5, 1993 TAG: 9311050128
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
William Mezger, senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission, said Thursday that 1,400 people were out of work in the trade sector that month, primarily caused by closing of the Sears Telemarketing Center.
That suggests potential improvement for Roanoke when the October report is released; the center reopened last month as a subsidiary of the American Association of Retired Persons.
Also, Labor Day fell late on the calendar, on Sept. 6, causing a delay in opening of schools. That meant bus drivers and cafeteria workers went to work later than usual, accounting for a drop of about 600 people in the government sector.
The retail trade sector remained strong in the Roanoke area, he said. Outside of "some slight losses" in banking, there was "not really much change in anything else" in September.
The number of people out of work was 50 more than August - from 6,010 to 6,060. But the work force was seasonally smaller, so the percentage jumped from 4.6 percent to 4.8 percent.
The number of unemployed Virginians dropped 1,300 to 170,600, the lowest level since 162,500 were out of work in April.
But when that number was applied to the seasonally reduced September labor force, the state unemployment rate rose from 5.1 percent to 5.2 percent.
New claims for unemployment benefits were lower than at any time in the past five years.
Factory employment was unchanged, with losses at some defense industries offset by seasonal gains in tobacco and food processing. Mining also was unchanged from August.
Production workers earned a record average weekly wage of $456.92, $5.10 above August and $9.34 more than 1992.
Average hourly factory pay rate was $11.01, 7 cents more than August and 12 cents greater than the prior September.
The production work week averaged 41.5 hours, up 0.2 of an hour from August and 0.4 of an hour from last year.
by CNB