THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994                    TAG: 9406200197 
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY                     PAGE: 11    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940620                                 LENGTH: 

EMPLOYMENT: ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, WE'RE HOLDING OUR OWN

With thousands of shipyard workers losing their jobs last year, the employment picture here looked pretty bleak. But when the dust cleared on the 1993 numbers, things weren't that bad.

{REST} Led by construction and certain service industries, jobs in Hampton Roads grew at a respectable pace in 1993.

It wasn't a boom year: The growth rate was only half that of the rest of the state because of all the pink slips handed out at defense-dependent shipyards. But the economy has continued to move ahead.

Employment gains have held steady in 1994. The latest figures, in fact, show that other areas of the local economy haven't yet been pulled down by military procurement cuts.

What's ahead? Probably more of the same: anemic growth, but growth nonetheless.

{KEYWORDS} EMPLOYMENT ALMANAC

by CNB