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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994                   TAG: 9408050026
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

VA. JOB GROWTH MOST ROBUST IN '90S

Virginia added jobs in May at better than a 3 percent rate for the third month in a row, making March, April and May the state's most robust three months for employment during the 1990s, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Wednesday.

Richard Sorensen, dean of Virginia Tech's Business College, said it is unlikely the state can sustain its job creation boom. Now that the economy is moving again, he said businesses have to hire back some of the workers they laid off earlier in the decade.

"That's a very high percentage," Sorensen said of the state's job-growth rate. "The businesses really did cut back significantly over a three-year period, and there was very little slack as ordering increased."

The Roanoke metropolitan area again in May showed job growth that was only bested by one area in the state - Northern Virginia. Roanoke's 4 percent job growth for the month was attributed primarily to nearly 10 percent growth in service-sector jobs, which often are dismissed as low-pay positions. The growth in Roanoke and the rest of the state came in business and health care service jobs.

by CNB