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misleading data,” Mr. Pearson said. The reported taxable sales for the month showed a 17.5 percent decline compared to December 1985. “The key word in that figure is reported,” Mr. Pearson stressed.
The January snows which brought much of the Commonwealth to a standstill caused an unusually large number of businesses to be late in filing reports for December, he explained. Therefore, the figures for December are understated. “How much they are understated,” the bureau’s director continued, “we won’t know for some time.”
When the currently available December figures are added to obtain a complete-year taxable sales figure, the increase compared to 1985 is only 5.4 percent. “Our best guess,” Mr. Pearson said, “is that the actual increase for the year is in the seven to eight percent range.”
Payroll employment figures state-wide showed a 3.1 percent increase over December 1985, “a continuation of the pattern of decelerating job increases,” Mr. Pearson noted. Total nonagricultural employment gain during 1986 was 3.8 percent, down more than one full percentage point from 1985’s gain of 4.9 percent.
Four of Virginia’s eight metropolitan statistical areas reported job growth figures below 1985; Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond-Petersburg and Roanoke all had smaller increases than last year. Of the four experiencing gains, Bristol (4.4 percent) and Charlottesville (4 percent) led the field. Danville moved from a 1.8 percent decline in 1985 to a slight (0.2 percent) gain in 1986.
Mr. Pearson theorized that one reason for the difference in decline and growth between the eight metro regions is the diversity of makeup of the job market in different areas of the Commonwealth, which results in different responses to changes in the state and national economic climate.
The Business Report continues to forecast an overall slowdown in Virginia’s economy during 1987. Just how severe that slowdown actually is will become evident now that the seasonal slowdown following the holidays is over. Spring is traditionally a time when the economy heats UP
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