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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 2, 1994                   TAG: 9409020064
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HELP-AD INDEX SHOWS JULY GAIN

An index that measures the demand of companies for workers registered a healthy gain in July, yet showed signs of slowed hiring.

The Conference Board, a New York business research organization, said its help-wanted advertising index reached 121 points in July, up from 117 in June and 100 in July 1993.

The index is compiled by measuring the volume of classified advertising seeking workers in 51 U.S. newspapers.

The gains vary sharply by regions of the country, the Conference Board said. The South Atlantic area, including Virginia, has has the smallest rise in the volume of want ads over the past year. Over the past three months, the South Atlantic area has registered a 0.6 percent decline in help-wanted advertising.

"Over 300,000 new jobs were added in June and July," said Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein. "But help-wanted advertising was absolutely flat over the same period" a year earlier. That suggests the pace of new hiring may be slowing in late summer."

- Staff report

by CNB