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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994                   TAG: 9402030159
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA. JOBLESS RATE AT 3-YEAR LOW

The state's employment level has finally climbed back to where it was before the recession, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Wednesday.

Virginia's 4.1 percent jobless rate in December was the lowest recorded in more than three and a half years, the VEC said in its monthly report. To find a lower rate, the agency had to dig out its report for May 1990, when unemployment stood at 3.9 percent.

"Virginia seems to be enjoying the sort of surge in the economy that the rest of the nation is experiencing," said Bill Mezger, senior economist with the VEC.

With the good news, however, come words of caution: January's rate will almost certainly not be as good.

"The real low rate is probably going to be short-lived because of the weather," Mezger said.

Typically, the VEC posts some of the higher jobless figures of the year in January and February, when construction workers are idled by winter weather and retail workers hired for holiday sales are laid off.

The low numbers for December reflect swollen payrolls at retailers dealing with the Christmas rush. Merchants hired more temporary employees this holiday season than they had since 1988, the VEC reported.

Because of their extensive retailing sectors, the state's three largest metropolitan areas - Northern Virginia, Richmond and Tidewater - experienced the steepest drops in unemployment in December.

Bath County, because of construction workers returning home for the winter, recorded Virginia's highest unemployment rate, 20.9 percent.

The VEC also reported that:

The average length of the production work week was 42 hours, a 20-year high. November's report had the average work week at 41.9 hours, but the VEC revised that to 41.6 hours.

It expects the January unemployment rate is jump more than one percent, because the harsh weather forced a complete shutdown of most outdoor work.

The number of people filing initial jobless claims in December, 41,376, was the lowest recorded in that month in 14 years.