Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994 TAG: 9401110004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A VEC report for November showed the New River Valley's unemployment rate at 8.6 percent, down from 9.3 percent in October. It's the area's lowest jobless rate since December 1990, shortly before AT&T shut down it's Fairlawn plant, when it was 8.4 percent.
Mezger credited the holiday shopping rush for much of the improvement.
"It looks like the stores hired people about two weeks earlier this year," he said.
While an improvement, the rate is still higher than the state's 4.9 percent rate. Northern Virginia leads the way at 3.2 percent.
AT&T's closing and the more than 2,000 layoffs at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant have caused the valley's unemployment rate to hover around 10 percent for the last year.
Richard Sorenson, dean of Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, said he expects the unemployment rate to continue its decline.
"It looks like most of the layoffs have already occurred and what we are seeing is the natural impact of time," he said.
Some unemployed workers have found new work, some have moved from the area and others have simply exhausted all of their unemployment benefits and are no longer included in the employment figures, he said.
Another positive note, Sorenson noted, was an announcement last month by Hercules Inc. that 230 workers would return to their jobs at the arsenal.
Here's how the unemployment numbers breakdown across the valley: 9.5 percent in Giles; 7.3 percent in Montgomery County; 8.9 percent in Radford; 10.6 percent in Pulaski County; and 8.4 percent in Floyd County.
by CNB