THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406200198
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By PHIL MURRAY, Business weekly staff
DATELINE: 940620 LENGTH: Short
Sorry, Mike, the project manager for a Fairfax County construction company told him. You're doing a great job, but we're cutting staff and we're giving your job to someone with more seniority. Good luck.
{REST} Maddox, a 17-year veteran of the construction business, is used to the vagaries of the industry. He lost a company in Denver when the market went sour in the late 1980s and has been laid off twice since.
Last fall, however, he was in the middle of buying a farm near his native Williamsport, Pa., and was brand new to Hampton Roads. Local contractors encouraged him to stick around.
After several years in the doldrums, construction employment started improving last year.
It turned out to be good advice.
Maddox, 38, was out of work only a couple of weeks before landing a job with Norfolk-based Curtex Construction in October. Now he's supervising construction of a $1 million shop at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach to repair and maintain jet-fuel trucks.
``Things seem to be picking up, but it's a scary thing to say that,'' Maddox says. ``In this business, there are a lot of good times, then there are some rough times.''
{KEYWORDS} ALMANAC
by CNB