ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON
Roanoke-area restaurants last year hired employees faster than any other type of business in the Roanoke Valley area, adding 1,300 waiters, waitresses and other personnel, state labor officials said Tuesday.
The large order for eatery workers raised employment at eating and drinking establishments in Roanoke, Salem and Roanoke and Botetourt counties to 9,100 in January, up nearly 17 percent from January 1996, the Virginia Employment Commission said. The total number of jobs in the region stood at 141,200, up 4,900, or 3.6 percent.
The new food-industry jobs helped keep down the region's unemployment rate, measured at 3.2 percent in January. It was down nearly a percentage point from a year earlier.
By comparison, manufacturing employment edged downward from 19,500 jobs in January 1996 to 19,400 in January 1997.
Other parts of the state also recorded low jobless rates, with Lexington's rate the state's lowest at 1.6 percent. Lancaster County posted the highest rate, 25.3 percent. State officials said many of that county's residents lose jobs each winter as fishing and farming slow.
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: Unemployment rates. color.by CNB