Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9407010001
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
How's that?
"Some of the people who come in and out of the labor force, because of the good news lately about employment, seem to be coming back in," said Bill Mezger, senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission. "They think the job opportunities are there."
Unemployment rates usually jump in May, when college students finish their studies and try to find jobs. Metro areas normally bear the brunt of students entering the work force.
"Most of the students, they go to college in Charlottesville, Blacksburg or Harrisonburg," Mezger said, "and they return to live in metropolitan areas."
But the state and most of its metro areas saw their unemployment rates exceed even last May's numbers. The exceptions were Northern Virginia, where May's 3.5 percent jobless rate dipped below 1993's 3.6 percent for the month, and Roanoke, which equaled last year's 4.4 percent rate for May.
The state's 5.2 percent unemployment rate, though still significantly lower than the national jobless rate of 5.9 percent, also jumped when several large employers announced layoffs in May. Mezger said layoffs in the textile industry in Martinsville and Danville added to the ranks of the unemployed.
Martinsville has taken such hits lately, with layoffs at Sara Lee Knit Corp. and others, that the city's unemployment rate became one of the five worst in the state. Martinsville ranks with the coal-producing counties, which traditionally have the worst unemployment rates in the state.
The counties of Dickenson (19 percent), Buchanan (17.4 percent), Tazewell (13 percent) and Russell (12.9 percent) were the only jurisdictions with unemployment rates that exceeded Martinsville's 12.4 percent rate in May.
"Martinsville's an area that, in good times, the rate can get down to 3, 4 or 5 percent," Mezger said. "In hard times like this, the rate gets as high as 10 or 12 percent."
by CNB