DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708280539

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE JUMPS IN THE REGION SHIPYARDS CAUSE THE INCREASE, BUT VIRGINIA STILL POSTS ITS LOWEST RATE IN 8 YEARS.

Blame it on the shipyards, but Hampton Roads' unemployment rate jumped in July even as the state posted its best jobless rate for the month in eight years.

``On the Norfolk side, you still have some shipyard layoffs showing up,'' said William F. Mezger, senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission. But, he added, ``It also looks like on the Peninsula the layoffs from shipbuilding seem to have been less in July.''

Hampton Roads' July unemployment rate of 5.4 percent was still better than the 6.1 percent rate it posted in June, but it compared poorly to the 5.0 percent recorded last July, the VEC reported.

Weakness in employment at the shipyards made for higher unemployment rates in Norfolk (7.5 percent), Chesapeake (5.5 percent) and Portsmouth (8.7 percent), Mezger said.

Meanwhile, the state had a blockbuster month. Virginia's unemployment rate fell .4 percentage points, to 4.3 percent in July from 4.7 percent in June. That marked the best rate for July in eight years, since the state posted a 4.0 percent jobless level in 1989.

If the state's economy keeps improving, Mezger said, its unemployment rate will routinely be posting its best numbers in eight years. That's because in the second half of 1990 the Persian Gulf crisis drove the economy toward the recession of 1990-91. The economy was at its peak in 1989, eight years ago.

July is traditionally a slow month for the Virginia economy, as furniture, apparel and other factories send their workers on vacation furloughs for about five weeks.

Those furloughs meant that the state's production workers earned an average weekly wage of $523.33 in July, $1.61 less than in June but $20.71 more than in last July.

The good news is that factories furloughed about 9 percent fewer workers than they did last July and resumed work quickly after the vacation period. That usually means good employment levels for the rest of the year, Mezger said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

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[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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