DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704040703

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

HAMPTON ROADS, STATE JOBLESS RATE HELPED BY MILD WINTER

A mild winter sent construction crews back to work sooner than usual and helped propel Hampton Roads and Virginia to their lowest February unemployment rates in years, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday.

Construction jobs in Hampton Roads jumped 3,400, or 9.1 percent, from 37,400 in February of last year to 40,800 in February this year, the VEC said.

``This year it looked like the building sector got back to work three to four weeks ahead of normal because the weather was so good,'' said William F. Mezger, senior economist at the VEC.

The Hampton Roads unemployment rate in February stood at 4.9 percent, down from January's 5 percent rate. In Virginia, unemployment was 4.4 percent. The U.S. unemployment figure was 5.7 percent.

Within Hampton Roads, Chesapeake's 3.8 percent unemployment rate and Virginia Beach's 4 percent jobless rate were among the lowest of the major cities.

Overall, job growth in Hampton Roads is second in the state only to Northern Virginia, Mezger said. Hampton Roads added 27,500 jobs between February 1996 and February 1997, a growth rate of 4.4 percent.

In addition to construction, 11.4 percent growth in business services in February helped to fuel that job growth.

``That's a good area to have strong growth because it tends to have high wages,'' Mezger said.

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