Unemployment Increases, But Number of Jobs Rises: Area's Recovery Fairly Robust
Metropolitan Washington is experiencing a fairly robust recovery from the recent recession despite a slow increase in overall retail sales, according to government economic data published yesterday.</br></br>Although area unemployment increased in February, the total number of jobs was up more than 30,000 from the aame month in 1975, the D.C. Department of Manpower reported.</br></br>Areawide retail sales in January, meanwhile, were up 4 per cent from the same month in 1976 to $742 million. By the same measuresÛÓnot adjusted for seasonal variations or holi- , daysÛÓnationwide retail sales in January were 5 per cent above the year-earlier levels.</br></br>strong hero for sales volume and indicated that it will be difficult to surpass the year-earlier retail activity.</br></br>In a separate report on the stale of Virginia's economy, College of William and Mary forecaster Leland Is. Traywirk said business indicators last month showed a ÛÏsignificant improvement over January.Û The volume of bank checking account transactionsÛÓ a good measure, of retail and wholesale tradeÛÓwas up 33 per. cent from the some month last year.