Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992 TAG: 9202050063
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
PAPER FLURRY ADDS JOBS
Low interest rates are helping hold down the unemployment rate as mortgage lenders are forced to hire workers to meet the demand of homeowners eager to refinance their loans.It meant Mike Hincker, Deanna Chaplin, Carol Divers and their staffs have been working overtime and weekends.
Roanoke-area mortgage companies have added workers to answer phones and handle the crush of refinancing applications. And the hiring of 600 to 700 employees in mortgage offices helped reduce the state unemployment rate in December, the Virginia Employment Commission said Tuesday.
"Every mortgage lender I know has put on extra help," said Mike Hincker, manager of Dominion Mortgage Corp.'s office in Roanoke County.
Homeowners call every day asking for the latest rates, calls that tie up one after another of his dozen employees. Refinancing is big business while rates are low, but the applications tend to slow when rates turn upward, he said.
Chaplin, operations manager at the NationsBank Mortgage Corp. office in Roanoke County, said her work volume has tripled since the first of the year. When rates fell almost 2 percentage points to less than 8 percent, her office staff worked 60 to 70 hours a week - "whenever the family permits. We work around the family," she said.
Many customers are cutting 10 to 15 years from the payment period for their 30-year mortgages, leaving their payments unchanged. "We see a lot of people going from 30 to 15 years," said Divers, manager of Crestar Mortgage Corp. in Roanoke County.
Hiring by the mortgage industry helped push Virginia's jobless rate to 5.5 percent in December, down 0.2 of a percentage point from November's 5.7 percent. Retail hiring for the Christmas season and the recall of laid-off auto assembly workers also helped reduce the state rate, the VEC said.
However, the rate edged up in the Roanoke area, from 4.9 percent to 5 percent, as 70 people joined unemployment rolls. In December, 6,450 people in the Roanoke Valley were out of work, according to VEC research economist William Mezger.
The increase probably was caused by "a layoff here and there" and a change in the typical pattern of hiring before Christmas by retailers, said Virgil Thompson in the VEC's Roanoke office.
Roanoke-area layoffs attributed to traditional Christmas factory shutdowns were only 72 percent of the number a year earlier, Mezger said, "showing that manufacturing is in fairly good shape."
Mezger attributed some of December's increase to layoffs of election officials who worked only in November. Loss of those jobs reduced the work force of local governments in December and raised the unemployment rate.
The Roanoke area in December also lost 100 jobs from the retail sector, mostly layoffs by the region's mail order merchants, whose sales peak earlier than conventional retailers, Mezger said.
In December, the number of people drawing unemployment benefits in the valley rose by 132 to 2,385. New claims rose by 441 to 665.
For 1991, Roanoke's jobless rate averaged 4.7 percent, up from 3.5 percent in 1990. That was the second-lowest rate, after Northern Virginia, among Virginia's five largest metropolitan areas, Mezger said.
Another sign of growth in December was the state's average factory work week, which reached 41.5 hours, the longest in 37 months. At Roanoke-area factories, employees worked an average of 41.7 hours, down slightly from 42 hours in November.
Overall, employment in the Roanoke area fell by 500 jobs to 128,400 in December, the VEC said. Service employment was down by 600 and restaurants reported 100 fewer employees. Gains of 100 jobs were reported by finance, insurance and real estate firms and by transportation and public utility companies.
Manufacturing, usually hard hit in a recession, has gained slightly, except for the auto and housing industries, Mezger said. Service industries have caught the brunt of the recession through downsizing and permanent layoffs, he said.
January statistics, to be reported in early March, will show a statewide unemployment rate of 6.1 or 6.2 percent, Mezger predicted. January and February usually are months with the year's highest jobless rates.
December unemployment in Roanoke was 5.7 percent, up from 5.6 percent in November; Roanoke County, 4.2 percent, up from 4.1 percent; Salem, 4.8 percent, up from 4.6 percent, and Botetourt County, unchanged at 4.9 percent.
Bedford was 4.8 percent, down from 5.4 percent; Buena Vista-Lexington-Rockbridge County, unchanged at 7.7 percent; Covington-Clifton Forge, 9.8 percent, down from 10.5 percent; Radford, 9 percent, down from 9.2 percent; Martinsville, 6.5 percent, down from 6.8 percent, and Norton-Wise County, 11 percent, up from 10.1 percent.
Among Western Virginia counties, Bath, 20.2 percent, up from 15.9 percent; Bland, 5.8 percent, up from 4.4 percent; Botetourt unchanged at 4.9 percent; Carroll, 7.6 percent, up from 7 percent; Craig, 6.8 percent, up from 6.5 percent; Floyd, 10.7 percent, down from 11.6 percent.
Franklin, 6.7 percent, up from 5.8 percent; Giles, 12.2 percent, up from 12 percent; Grayson, 7.4 percent, up from 6.8 percent; Highland, 8.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent; Pulaski, 8.7 percent, down from 9.6 percent; Smyth, 8.5 percent, up from 8.4 percent; Tazewell, 10.6 percent, up from 9.5 percent; Washington, 6.2 percent, down from 6.3 percent, and Wythe, 5.9 percent, down from 8 percent.
Memo: CORRECTION