DATE: Wednesday, June 4, 1997               TAG: 9706040639

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: 1D   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   39 lines

VIRGINIA'S JOBLESS RATE DIPS TO 3.9%

Virginia's unemployment rate in April dropped to 3.9 percent, falling below 4 percent for the first time in seven years, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Tuesday.

``April is usually the best month of the first half of the year,'' said William F. Mezger, senior economist at the VEC. ``You have a lot of tourist activity because children are out of school on spring break.''

The state's five largest metropolitan areas showed a ``mixed picture'' of the employment: the jobless rate rose one-tenth of a percent from March to April in Hampton Roads, Richmond-Petersburg and Roanoke.

Hampton Roads posted a 4.7 percent unemployment rate, up from 4.3 percent last April.

``The increase in Hampton Roads seems to be mainly because of some shipyard people who are on furlough,'' Mezger said.

Overall, Virginia's economy continued to ride the coattails of a strong national economy and the state's own job recruitment successes. Virginia was ranked sixth among the states in job growth from February 1996 to February 1997, according to an Arizona State University report called ``Blue Chip Job Growth Update.''

The state added 99,300 jobs during that 12-month span, the report said.

But smaller events may have led to April's low rate. The strength of tourism in Virginia in April is often underestimated, but travelers come for Garden Week, families for spring break and schools for history-oriented field trips, Mezger said.

``Class trips to Washington often take a day in Virginia,'' Mezger said. ``April is a bigger tourist month, usually, than May.''

The construction business also continued to post strong numbers. In Hampton Roads, the 41,700 construction jobs in April were 2,500 more than last April's tally, a jump of 6.4 percent.

``Everything else in Hampton Roads was in good shape,'' Mezger said, ``except you did have those shipyard workers out.''

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