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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993                   TAG: 9312160026
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YO-HO-HO IT'S OFF FROM WORK WE GO

Coy Renick, president of the Roanoke Valley Society of Human Resources Management, said the typical pattern suggests a sizable portion of the region's industrial work force will take vacation starting Christmas Eve and won't go back to work until Monday morning, Jan. 3.

That's true of Precision Fabrics and his own company, Vitramon Inc., Renick said.

Vitramon will use the 10-day vacation to move into its expanded plant. The manufacturer of ceramic chip capacitors for the auto industry is completing a $21 million, 50,000-square-foot addition to its plant at the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology.

ITT Corp.'s Electro Optical Products Division and Singer Furniture Co. also plan a Christmas Eve holiday followed by a week's vacation.

William Mezger, senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission, called that schedule "a pretty typical pattern," especially in Southwest and Southside Virginia.

Christmas week closings won't affect the employment statistics, he said, because the agency's survey week - when it collects data on the number of Virginians working and estimates the number looking for jobs for compilation of the monthly figures - falls at mid-month.

The General Electric Co. plant in Salem will close Dec. 23 and 24 and Monday, Jan. 3.

At Yokohama Tire Corp., the holidays are scheduled for two Thursdays and Fridays, Dec. 23, 24, 30 and 31.

Bankers' hours are less attractive than usual this Christmas. Banks will close at 2 p.m. Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve will be a regular banking day.