Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 2, 1994 TAG: 9408030025
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Roanoke unemployment rate rose from 4.5 percent in May to 4.6 percent in June, but that was a smaller increase than for most metropolitan areas of Virginia. It also improved on last year's 5 percent.
In the New River Valley, the unemployment rate rose from 5.2 percent in May to 5.4 percent in June.
The Roanoke Valley "was one of the strongest areas in June," said William F. Mezger, senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission in Richmond. "Roanoke had real good numbers all the way around."
The number of people at work stood at 136,300 in Roanoke in June, compared to 134,600 in May and 130,400 in June 1993, the VEC reported. Mezger said that increase in the number of people at work in the Roanoke Valley set a record. It is the highest figure since reliable records were kept.
The same is true for Virginia, where the labor force increased by 4,900 to an all-time high of 3,465,500 in June. Wage and salary employment rose 20,500 to a new record of 3,031,800.
Weekly production worker earnings reached a new high of $470.40, Mezger said, and the production workweek, at 42 hours, was the longest since the mid-1960s.
Yet the state unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 5.5 percent in June.
Mezger said the annual addition of high school students to a summer labor market already swelled by college students caused the number of unemployed workers to increase by 10,100 to 19,400 in June.
Most areas of the state, however, reported a much-improved summer job outlook for young people in 1994.
The substantial growth in the labor force this spring caused the June jobless rate in Virginia of 5.5 percent to be slightly higher than 5.3 percent during the same month last year, Mezger said, but the current figure was still well below the June United States unemployment rate of 6.2 percent.The major metropolitan areas, with their proportionately higher populations of youth, all saw increased unemployment rates in June.
Among the individual cities and counties in the state, Fairfax City had the lowest June jobless rate of 1.5 percent, while Dickenson County, at 19.2 percent, had Virginia's highest unemployment rate.
The number of Virginia residents drawing unemployment benefits in June was 30,000, slightly below the 31,000 receiving benefits in both May and June a year ago.
Initial claims for benefits averaged 4,900 per week in June, compared with 5,500 per week in May and 4,100 per week last June. Initial claims were up from last June, Mezger said, because of more prefiling for summer vacation plant closings this year.
By July, Mezger predicted, most of the young people who entered the labor market in May and June looking for summer jobs have either found work or stopped their job search.
In addition, he said, adult unemployment often increases in July. That's the period when it is traditional for textile, apparel, furniture and food plants - particularly in the Southside and Shenandoah Valley regions - to close for vacations for several weeks around the July 4 holiday.
by CNB