Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994 TAG: 9404020023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The small number was partly a statistical quirk rather that a true measure of Virginia's economic health. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which provides the raw figures for the report to the VEC, took the job market's pulse during the second week of February, when much of the state was blanketed by ice.
"That was one of the biggest snow and ice storms of the winter," said VEC Senior Economist William F. Mezger.
The average work week for production workers hit a 20-year high of 42 hours late last year.
Perhaps the most significant continuing trend in the VEC's report is the recovery of the jobs picture in the New River Valley. That area's overall jobless rate stood at 7.2 percent a year ago, but registered just 4.8 percent in February.
The VEC had attributed the New River Valley's rosy January numbers to a statistical abnormality due to end-of-year census adjustments. But the unemployment figures remained low in February.
Mezger again cautioned that those numbers may understate the actual unemployment in the region. Radford Army Ammunition Plant employees who were laid off early last year have exhausted their jobless benefits; if they haven't found jobs by now, Mezger said, they will no longer be counted as part of the labor force.
"This pretty near always happens after a big layoff," he said, "It's a question of whether some of these people are in the labor force now."
In the Roanoke region, the unemployment rates improved in February in every locality except Franklin County. Mezger noted that Franklin County's rate increased 0.2 of a percentage point to 6.1 percent, due primarily to layoffs at two manufacturers.
by CNB