Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403150162
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ignoring evidence that manufacturing jobs are declining in the Roanoke Valley and virtually everywhere else, a majority of 1993 poll respondents said that attracting such jobs was the most desirable of six hypothetical economic development strategies.
Attracting high-tech jobs placed second, and more service jobs came in third. The remaining three strategies, in descending order of perceived importance, were:
Promoting tourism.
Completing the downtown convention center.
Establishing closer ties with Virginia Tech.
Manufacturing jobs are declining as a percentage of the U.S. labor market because of automation and increasing foreign competition, but they continue to be regarded as desirable because of the high wages associated with them. Economies with a preponderance of low-wage jobs, which include many service occupations, are held to be less healthy.
This is a perception not lost on respondents to the Roanoke Valley Poll. They said the lack of high-wage jobs was one of the most serious threats to the valley's economic vitality. It ranked behind ineffective government and high taxes in that order, and ahead of school problems, poverty and race relations.
The lack of good job opportunities was felt most acutely among respondents who were making less than $10,000 per year. Members of the same group were the ones most likely to believe their jobs in jeopardy.
A majority of them said it would be ``not easy at all'' to find another job with comparable income and benefits if they were laid off.
Pulling more manufacturing jobs into the valley was the top economic development priority among all age groups, both genders, whites as well as blacks, all political and ideological persuasions, and in Salem, Roanoke and Roanoke County.
Only among respondents with the most education and income was the pattern broken. Those with college degrees or better placed greatest importance on high-tech jobs, with manufacturing jobs ranking second. Those with incomes of $40,000 or more said high-tech jobs were equally as important as manufacturing jobs.
They are the people most likely to have high-tech jobs, which generally require post-secondary education or training and command accordingly higher wages.
Likewise, service jobs assumed greater importance among the respondents who often hold such jobs: blacks and/or those with the least income and education.
Those with the most education and income leaned toward skilled-labor and white-collar jobs as the kind most needed in the valley. Unskilled-labor jobs were more valued by respondents with less education and lower incomes.
``In short,'' pollsters said in their summary, ``respondents tended to see a need for more of `their' jobs.''
The poll was conducted for the Roanoke Times & World-News by the Center for Community Research at Roanoke College.
In order to avoid influencing answers, said center director Harry Wilson, there was no attempt to define terms such as ``manufacturing,'' ``high tech,'' ``skilled'' and ``unskilled'' for those who were polled.
``They answered according to whatever it meant in their own minds,'' Wilson said.
by CNB