Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
NEW JOBS, BUSINESS GROWTH HAILED AS RECOVERY START
New jobs being drawn to the Roanoke Valley are closing the gap on layoffs, and economic developers say there are clear signs of the region's turning upward from recession.Announcements this week by First Union Corp. and Transkrit Corp. were seen as evidence that the region's economic outlook has improved.
Although the new and proposed jobs may not equal the value of those lost over the past several months, the momentum of hiring is being felt as a sign of expansion, growth and construction, especially among smaller companies.
As First Union begins to process its banking paperwork, other employment growth will come, Fuzzy Minnix, chairman of Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, predicted Thursday. "Good things are just up the road for the Roanoke Valley," he said.
The 500 new valley jobs announced this week boosted the total created in the last eight months to about 2,300 - or about 1,100 less than the layoff number.
However, if the numbers of part-time jobs being lost by closing of the Sears Telecatalog center and those added by opening of Orkand Corp. are calculated as the equivalent of full-time positions, the gap is lower.
The 1,200 Sears jobs amount to an estimated 650 full-time equivalent positions. Orkand's work force of 650 full- and part-time jobs are the equivalent of about 350 full-time posts.
Using these full-time equivalent numbers, the valley has 560 more layoffs than new jobs and that proves "that things aren't as bad as everybody says," according to Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
Layoffs caused by plant closings and downsizing since June left gloom in the community, but business and development leaders are looking up after the latest job announcements.
The new jobs are a result of a "long-term, ongoing effort to recruit and to help existing business grow," Doughty said. Her organization markets the valley to national and regional prospects.
Hiring plans of First Union and Transkrit are "more signs that the economy is turning around. We've been working on this for several years and we are seeing the results," she said.
Brian Wishneff, Roanoke's economic development chief, said, "A lot more economic activity is going on than you or I know of." His staff is working with "a fairly good-sized company" which may reach a decision to locate here "in 30 to 45 days," he said.
Wishneff said he's heard of "at least a half-dozen smaller companies looking to expand."
Big layoffs are devastating and people would rather dwell on headlines about lost jobs, Minnix said, "but we don't hear about the little companies hiring."
In the past seven months, companies have asked the Virginia Employment Commission's Roanoke office to fill 6,083 jobs, an increase of 55 percent from a year earlier, said Marjorie Skidmore, the agency's job service manager in Roanoke.
"We have turned the corner, not at a right angle, but we're sort of easing around," she said.
In Salem, planning and development director Joe Yates said business is "doing all right." Home construction is under way in seven Salem subdivisions, each containing an average of 20 lots. The construction is a result of recent extension of sewer lines to the entire city. "Infrastructure has fueled growth," he said.
Smaller companies are adding workers, Yates said, offsetting the average of 10 percent of all companies which close in a year. "We try to keep it level," he said.
A California company has talked of opening a 50,000-square-foot building with 100 employees in Salem. The prospect contacted Yates because it does business with Home Shopping Network, but he doesn't know what the company does. The number of inquiries from prospects has doubled in the past year, Yates said.
If Connex Pipe Systems Inc., the Ohio company eyeing a Botetourt County building, moves there it should have jobs for the Gardner-Denver Mining & Construction employees soon to be out of work, Skidmore said. She expects Gardner-Denver's machine operators will be absorbed in the work force.
Roanoke Valley's time for growth was coming, Doughty said. "Its advantages are great and a lot of good things are going on. . . . We are a lot more serious contender with prospects than we used to be," she said. Communities in the valley are more competitive and the partnership is better at bringing prospects, Doughty added.
Expanding companies bring more than jobs, she said. They contribute to the tax base "and help the community provide a level of services which makes this a competitive business climate."
Although the number of jobs is rising, the pay is not as much, Skidmore said. "This is not job-for-job replacement."
In the jobs most sought after at the VEC, employers are paying $5 an hour for clerks, $6 for package material handling, $6.60 for machine trades, $7 for construction, $7.50 in motor freight and up to $9.40 for professional technical managers.
Skidmore said her office is receiving more job openings at higher rates of pay than it can fill.