IT'S TRUE: ROANOKE'S A JOB LEADER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150143
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
IT'S TRUE: ROANOKE'S A JOB LEADER
A gain of 2,000 jobs for the year that ended in November made Roanoke the fastest-growing metropolitan job market in the state - perhaps ironic news to a community recently buffeted by companies announcing 1,250 layoffs by fall.
The Virginia Employment Commission said Thursday that Roanoke's 1.6 percent employment growth for the year made it the state's jobs leader among its eight metro areas, replacing Bristol, which had a plant closing.
But Roanoke faces the loss of about 850 Dominion Bank jobs as part of Dominion's acquisition by First Union Corp., and 400 jobs when the Gardner-Denver Mining and Construction division sale is completed this year. In addition, 270 jobs were lost when the Grumman Emergency Products fire engine plant closed in September.
Steady gains in business services and a November spurt in mail-order retailing accounted for many of Roanoke's new jobs, the VEC said. The area picked up 1,300 jobs in October and November.
The Roanoke area also gained 300 factory jobs, 500 in local government and 100 each in state and federal government. At the same time, it lost 400 jobs in finance, insurance and real estate, 400 in trade including retailing, 200 in transportation and public utilities and 100 in construction.
Roanoke's unemployment rate for November was 4.7 percent, up from 4.3 percent but less than the 5 percent a year ago. The number of people out of work fell 330 from the year-ago count, but it increased 530 during the month.
Norfolk, growing at the rate of 1 percent, and Bristol, adding 0.9 percent more jobs, were the only other metro areas in the state with rising employment for the period.
Lynchburg employment was down 100, or 0.1 percent, ranking the least-negative among the four metro areas with annual job losses, the VEC said. Richmond's jobs loss was 2.2 percent, the largest in the state. Charlottesville has 1.4 percent fewer jobs and Northern Virginia had an 0.8 percent drop.
The state lost 7,800 jobs, or 0.3 percent, the smallest figure since 5,500 were reported in April, the VEC said. And it was the second-lowest loss since the recession began in the state in October 1990.
The job gap narrowed last spring, widened over the summer and began to shrink in the fall, the VEC said. Construction had the largest loss in the state: 9,600 jobs. Much of the loss of 7,500 manufacturing jobs was blamed on defense-spending cuts.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB