Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403150165
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Jeff DeBell/Staff writer
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's often true. The service economy creates many waiters and sales clerks and data entry keyers, and they don't make as much as factory workers.
But not everyone in the huge service sector waits tables or sells cosmetics. Good service jobs also exist, ranging from doctors and lawyers to technical occupations that pay decent, if not exactly enriching, salaries.
These jobs are turning up in the Roanoke and New River valleys in growing numbers, and they're having a positive effect on wage averages in the region.
Almost 40 percent of the jobs added between the second quarters of 1989 and 1993 averaged $400 or more in weekly wages, according to the newspaper's study of Virginia Employment Commission data. In contrast, fewer than a quarter of the new jobs averaged $200 or less in weekly wages.
In the Roanoke Valley, the numbers were even more positive: 51 percent of new jobs over the five-year period paid an average weekly wage of $400 or better. That's a jump from 1988 when the newspaper studied jobs added between 1983 and 1987 and found that only 13.5 percent paid $400 or more.
In the 13 counties and cities roughly comprising the Roanoke and New River valleys, average second-quarter employment in all industries grew from 203,158 on June 30, 1989, to 207,094 on the same date five years later.
The growth of 1.9 percent was virtually identical to the rate for the state as a whole.
Growth over the period was slightly higher - 3.3 percent - for the Roanoke Valley. That compares with 1 percent for the Richmond-Petersburg area.
However, almost 80 percent of jobs added between 1989 and '93 averaged $400 or more in the Richmond-Petersburg metro area. Wages in the state's larger metro areas typically are higher than in the Roanoke Valley. Those areas also tend to harbor more well-paid professional and high-tech workers than other areas of the state.
Job-market growth in both metro areas was sharply down from 1983-87, when it was 18 percent in the Roanoke Valley and 17 percent in Richmond-Petersburg. Economist William Mezger of the Virginia Employment Commission lays the blame on recessions.
The state was emerging from the the 1981-82 recession in the mid-1980s and employment was rising; hence the more robust earlier figures. Similarly, the relatively modest 1989-93 growth reflects the effects of the 1990-91 recession.
For the Roanoke metropolitan area, the average weekly wage for all industries was $426 last June and $368 five years earlier. Comparable figures for the Richmond-Petersburg MSA were $485 and $419.
Regionally, the June '93 average weekly wage per employee ranged from $209 in retail trade to $476 in the transportation, communications and public utilities division. The numbers for construction and manufacturing were $346 and $466, respectively.
The VEC's Mezger isn't surprised by the growth of better-paying nonfactory jobs in the Roanoke-New River region between 1989 and 1993. He attributes it to vitality at the upper end of the service sector.
``Growth in services has been in computer and business services and health care,'' Mezger said. ``Business services tend toward the higher end - computer programmers and software specialists, and management and business consultants. In health care you have doctors and nurses and lots of specialists and technicians.''
VEC data cover broad employment groups, as opposed to specific occupations. But U.S. Census occupation figures for the region support Mezger. The number of computer experts, physicians, electronics engineers, nurses, lawyers and other upper-end service workers all increased dramatically in the region during the 1980s.
Computer programmers and computer systems analysts more than doubled in number during the decade, for instance. So did computer operators. Data processing equipment repairers nearly quadrupled.
Physicians increased 34 percent, physical therapists 60 percent, registered nurses 52 percent - all reflecting the Roanoke Valley's status as a regional health-care center.
The high-end service occupations are greatly outnumbered by waiters and cooks and sales people, of course. But in many instances the higher-paid occupations are growing faster than those at the low end of the service sector.
Mezger said the growth is enough to influence wage averages. The weekly regional average for all industries was $384 last June 30, up from $337 five years earlier.
During the same period, the statewide figure went from $413 to $478.
The 1992 mean annual wage for computer analysts was about $44,000 nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For computer programmers it was $37,400.
Here are BLS mean annual wages for some of the other occupations that have grown in the region: $49,000 for electrical and electronics engineers; $59,500 for physicians; $59,700 for lawyers; $32,100 for electrical and electronics technicians; $35,600 for registered nurses; $35,800 for physical therapists; $33,400 for data processing equipment repairers; $24,000 for computer operators.
Among service occupations that are particularly numerous in the region, though less well-paying, these are the mean annual wages: $17,420 for receptionists; $15,700 for apparel salespeople; $15,600 for counter sales clerks; $15,600 for nursing aides and orderlies; $14,200 for cooks; $12,800 for waiters and waitresses; $11,336 for food counter help.
The regional growth has been fed by job gains in trade, government, finance, transportation - every industry group, in fact, except manufacturing and construction.
Average manufacturing employment in the region decreased by 4,495, or 9.3 percent, over the five-year period, which is the most recent one for which the VEC has complete data.
Average employment in business services grew 32.3 percent across the region during the five years ending last June 30. In health services, the change was 10.4 percent.
Though manufacturing employment was down overall, there were gains in certain groups, among them chemicals, rubber and plastics, and electronics.
In retail trade, employment gains were notably strong in food stores and eating and drinking establishments.
Robust growth is expected to continue in the service-producing sector of the economy. It will happen both on the high side - lists of the future's high-growth and best-paying fields are replete with computer and health-care occupations - and on the lower end.
An example of the latter is retail sales. Growth in the future will be a continuation of what has been going on. Across the region, average retail trade employment increased 9.7 percent during the five years ending last June 30.
As of that date, average retail trade employment in the region was 23,000 jobs. They were paying an average of $209 per week, which was among the lowest wages of any of the employment divisions monitored by the VEC.
The numerical strength of retail employment is a reminder that, the apparent growth of higher-paying service jobs notwithstanding, the sector is replete with low-wage jobs and they play a large part in the Roanoke Valley-New River Valley employment picture.
For purposes of this report, the Roanoke Times & World-News studied census, employment and wage data for the counties of Roanoke, Pulaski, Montgomery, Giles, Franklin, Floyd, Craig, Botetourt and Bedford and the cities of Salem, Roanoke, Radford and Bedford.
by CNB