Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994 TAG: 9405310175
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The unemployment rate normally hits a low point for the first half of the year in April, because springtime construction projects are under way and the tourism industry starts picking up. Generally, the rate rises again in May, when colleges let out for the summer and students and new graduates are out looking for jobs.
"April was a good month all over, and the Roanoke area showed a little bit more improvement than other metropolitan areas," said Bill Mezger, senior economist with the Employment Commission.
Roanoke had the second lowest unemployment rate among the state's metro areas during April. Its 3.7 percent jobless rate was second only to Northern Virginia's 3.2 percent rate. Northern Virginia's rate was kept low with the help of Fairfax City's 1.0 percent unemployment, the lowest in the state. Dickenson County had the state's highest unemployment rate in April, at 17 percent.
Roanoke's rate, Mezger said, was helped by "very, very strong" growth in the region's business-services and health-services sectors. Manufacturers also added 700 workers, a sharp contrast to April 1993, when the region was dealing with job losses caused by the shutdown of the Gardner-Denver Mining and Construction Division. That company was sold and its operations moved to Texas.
The Roanoke area seems to be solidifying itself as a low-unemployment region, Mezger said.
"Roanoke pretty consistently runs below Richmond-Petersburg and Lynchburg," he said, "and it had been the other way around."
by CNB