ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701130101
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BRIEFLY PUT
AMERICA'S economy, Virginia's economy, the Roanoke region's economy - all are doing well.
In the aggregate, that is, but not necessarily for individual workers. Certainly not for the 450 who will lose their jobs this year when AMP Inc. closes its Roanoke plant under the international firm's restructuring plan announced this week. Nor for the 380 who'll lose their jobs, as announced a few weeks ago, at Hanover Direct's telemarketing and catalog-fulfillment operation here.
The news offers a couple of lessons. First, it confirms the wisdom of not putting all of our economic eggs in one basket. Because the region's economy is diversified, those who'll lose jobs are expected to have a decent chance of finding new employment. Even with the losses, Roanoke's jobless rate isn't expected to rise much above 3 percent.
Second, it's a reminder that the task of economic development never ceases. The AMP plant made the kind of with-it product - connection devices used by personal-computer manufacturers - that might have seemed to guarantee a robust future. Not so. General prosperity might also seem to guarantee job permanence. Not so.
Economic development must be ongoing work, not only for creating new jobs, but also for replacing old ones inevitably disappearing in an ever-changing economy.
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB