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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993                   TAG: 9310150140
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEARS CLOSING SHOWS UP IN ROANOKE'S JOB FIGURES

Employment in the Roanoke area slipped in August compared to the state's other metropolitan areas, partly as a result of the closing of the Sears Telecatalog Center, the Virginia Employment Commission said Thursday.

The 700 jobs added to Roanoke's employment base in August resulted in job growth of 0.7 percent, which put the area sixth in the state. The layoffs at the Sears center should be offset somewhat today when Retired Persons Services Inc., a mail order prescription affiliate of the American Association of Retired Persons, opens in the building.

"For a couple of periods there, back at the beginning of the year, Roanoke was leading the state" in job growth, said Bill Mezger, senior economist with the VEC, "but as the year went on there have been some layoffs, defense layoffs."

Buffering Roanoke's economy is its services sector, which added 1,900 jobs in August. In addition, 700 state and local government jobs were added in August.

None of the state's metropolitan areas added jobs by more than 1.7 percent. Mezger said that is because August is the worst month for employing college students. - Staff report

by CNB