THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100339
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Hampton Roads' rebound from January's storms brought a slight downtick in unemployment for February.
Local jobless numbers for February fell to 32,830, or 4.6 percent, down from 4.7 percent in January, according to the Virginia Employment Commission, which released the figures Tuesday.
``It didn't go down as much in Hampton Roads because it didn't go up that much the previous month,'' said William F. Mezger, senior economist at the Virginia Employment Commission. ``Hampton Roads was the least affected by the weather,'' unlike Northern Virginia and the western parts of the state.
Local unemployment for February has fallen when compared to that month during 1995, when it reached 5.2 percent, or 37,020. This year, growth in construction and service employment boosted the number of locally employed people.
More Virginians were employed in February than a month earlier, marking a six-year low in the month's unemployment rate.
February's unemployment rate was 4.3 percent statewide, 0.7 percentage points lower than January. The February rate also was down from the February 1995 rate of 4.8 percent. The figures were the latest available.
Mezger partly attributed February's figures to less severe weather than in January, although there were several snowstorms during the month.
``We just had a good bounce back from the January snow, and also the state's economy is very, very strong,'' Mezger said. ``Probably conditions are as good as they've been in the last six or seven years in most areas.''
Bad weather can affect unemployment because plants and other businesses that shut down during snow days often idle workers, he said. Construction and other outside work also goes down, he said.
Virginia's jobless rate was well below the national average February figure of 6 percent.
Most of Virginia's metropolitan areas saw improved unemployment rates from January to February. Only Northern Virginia, at 3 percent, and the Richmond-Petersburg area, at 3.4 percent, were unchanged over the month.
Both the Charlottesville area, at 2.1 percent, and the Roanoke area, at 2.8 percent, had very low unemployment rates in February.
Fairfax City, at 1.5 percent, had the lowest jobless rate for the month. Lancaster County, where winter idles much of the dominant fishing economy, had the month's highest unemployment rate, at 24.5 percent.
Mezger predicted the unemployment rate would drop further in March to about 4.1 percent or 4.2 percent. He said April, when construction work and tourism pick up, should trigger a drop to about 4 percent. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Source: The Virginia Employment Commission
Unemployment in Virginia
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KEYWORDS: UNEMPLOYMENT RATE VIRGINIA HAMPTON ROADS STATISTICS by CNB