Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 4

FIRST ON A-5 Green Bay Press-Gazette Comments? Call Money Editor Thomas Content, (920) 431-8221 Friday, August 29, 19971 1 i rm -rw Market in brief August 28, 1997 DOW(Industrials) NYSE Powerful economy hasn't erased anxieties AMEX NASDAQ "It is one thing to believe that the economy, indeed the job market, will do well overall, but quite another to feel secure about one's individual situation, given the accelerated pace 6f corporate restructuring and the heightened fear of skill obsolescence that has apparently characterized this expansion," Greenspan told a congressional committee in late July. A big part of the insecurity is caused by the vast technological changes in the workplace, Greenspan says. Many workers' agree. "It's a lot more competitive (in the workplace). There's no more just walking in the door and be a decent citizen (to get a job)," says Stella Crews, 47, a full-time, secretary in Detroit.

"Now it's walk in the door, be a decent citizen and know how to run several wordt processing programs." ByBethBelton Gannett News Service Seven years into an expansion that is being billed as an economic miracle, U.S. workers feel insecure and stressed-out. "Everyone 1 know is in a defensive position, and I'm no different," says Alex Gergely, 29, a computer programmer in Lexington, Ky. "I work from paycheck to paycheck, but I'm really trying to jump up a notch and do something different." A new nationwide survey on the mood of workers reveals lingering insecurity and unhealed wounds from the downsizing and restructuring that battered corporate America in the early years of this decade. Despite a 4.8 percent jobless rate and the tightest job market in 25 years, light among the world's economies.

Seven years of solid growth, low inflation and falling unemployment combined with stunning corporate profits, a spectacular bull market and a disappearing federal budget deficit have made the United States the envy of the global village. U.S. companies are in peak competitive shape. And there's no disputing how sweet the 1990s have been for investors and corporate executives. Across nearly every industry, the gains have been spectacular.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 183 percent the past seven years. But the powerful economic turnaround has done little to erase insecurity among the nation's 130 million workers. NYSE Diary Advances; 1,352 Declines: 1,499 Unchanged; 534 foUDKfip Tiremaker's No. 1 status challenged by advertisers workers are feeling more anxious than ever, the poll shows. In the survey: 70 percent say they have less job security than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

73 percent say there's more on-the-job stress. 59 percent say they have to work harder to earn a decent living. The poll was conducted in mid-July by Princeton Survey Research Associates (PSRA) for State of the Union, a series produced by PBS with the participation of USA Today. Widespread worker insecurity, despite the best economic conditions in a generation, remains an unsettling paradox. The U.S.

economy is the brightest In the past, the network broadcasting the game used some footage taken from the airship in exchange for incorporating some shots of the blimp into the show. Now, because of the competition, the networks sometimes demand the blimp's sponsor also buy ads for the broadcast. The competition tweaked Goodyear into upgrading its own television equipment and electric light show for night flights, said Mickey Whittman, manager of Goodyear's global airship program. But because Goodyear is so connected with airships in the public's mind, it has also benefited from the presence of more blimps. "People see a blimp and they think it's a Goodyear," he said.

Goodyear's connection with dirigibles dates back more than 70 years. It built the first one, the Pilgrim, in 1925 and quickly started using it as a public relations tool. Among its stunts, the airship landed on the roof of a downtown Akron department store to deliver tires and flew to the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. In all, Goodyear has built more than 300 airships, many for U.S. Navy surveillance missions, although the last Navy blimp was decommissioned in 1962 'leaving Goodyear alone in the skies for a time.

In the 1980s, a few other companies, such as Metropolitan Life Insurance, joined the blimp bandwagon by purchasing or leasing airships, and the number has continued to rise. fefcjiSs mm AKRON, Ohio (AP) Up in the air! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a blimp! But not necessarily the Goodyear blimp. The first name in airships and for many years the only name has gotten some serious competition.

The blimp business is booming, with about a dozen corporate dirigibles flying in the United States, compared to just one Goodyear Tire Rubber Co. ship back in 1962. Today, it's not unusual for four blimps to appear at a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl. Three were in Cleveland during the week of the baseball All-Star game. While Goodyear officials say the competition isn't a direct threat to the company's tire business Dunlop hasn't yet launched a blimp there is a sense "If it (a makes smile I from a marketing you're to doing job Michael Lightship lessor o8 Gergely works for a start-up online services company that designs sites on the World Wide Web for the secure transmission of confidential medical records.

He wants to stay in Lexington because most of his family and friends are there. But he says he's frustrated he can't use his expertise to earn more than $30,000 a year. "You can make twice as much in San Jose, as you can in Lexington, but they don't tell you the rente are three times as high," Gergely says. The apparent conflict of a strong economy and persistent worker insecurity makes a certain amount of sense to some experts, including Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. "LIZ.

marketing sense you're halfway to doing your job. Today, there are 53 blimps licensed to fly by the Federal Aviation Administration, but that includes all types of dirigibles many of which are small and personally owned. wr iniwfrpii mi jinm ihiiii In hi la Iffy? tA- I blimp) people think sense halfway your Bolton, Group, of blimps Study: State has few low i skill jobs MILWAUKEE (AP) Nearly! three people compete for every! low-skill job opening in Wisconsin and that ratio increases to almost seven to one in Milwaukee, a', study released Thursday said. More than 40,000 low-skill jobs 1 were available this year, and more than 120,000 unemployed workers and welfare recipients sought! them, said Paul Kleppner, director of the social policy research office at Northern Illinois University. Kleppner analyzed federal and state census and employment data for a study of several Midwestern states.

The numbers have implications for those joining the workforce through Wisconsin Works, or W-2, which begins in less than a week, Kleppner said. i "When most people, particularly politicians, look at the question off moving welfare recipients into the work force, they say we know .1 1 .1 .1 A tnere are jods oui mere, inai surely there are enough for welfare recipients," Kleppner said. "What they fail to take into account is that there are other people out there competing for those same jobs. Eleven of the 15 fastest growing jobs in Wisconsin require significant training, and the remaining four in child carej and health care pay the least. "I think it's a perception issue," said George Leuterman, president of Maximus one of fivej agencies under contract to train and find jobs for Wisconsin welfare recipients.

"I think the way to look at it is that each person has a one-1 on-one chance with thej interviewer. It's all about, 'Can you sell yourself to an employ Raquel Tate, a Milwaukee) woman who has been on welfare i five years, was one of more than 500 people who showed up Wednesday to interview for 250 jobs at QuadGraphics Inc. "I didn't get interviewed today, but I'm still going to put in my application everywhere," she said. "I'm looking for any kind of job in the stock room, cashier, break room." iir.i i 4 mm 144 Total Issues: 3,385 25 Composite volume: 576,116,300 1996 avg. comp.

497311,770 AP graphic 'King of swing' continues in stock market NEW YORK Even by recent standards, stocks put on an erratic display Thursday, sliding and charging back, only to slide again, and seemingly with little rhyme or reason. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 92.90 to 7,694.43. Less than an hour before the close, though, the Dow was up 25 points, having erased a 129-point loss that briefly pushed the blue-chip barometer to its lowest level since late June. Broad-market indicators also faltered over the final hour after recovering from a selloff that seemed misguided against the backdrop of a very strong bond market. "Volatility is the name of the game," said Alan Ackerman, market analyst at Fahnestock Co.

"This market has already established itself as king of swing." Nintendo's holiday arsenal is short In its video game battle with Sony, Nintendo heads into the Christmas season a few games short of a fully loaded arsenal. Three much-anticipated games for its $149.95 Nintendo 64 system have been delayed: Banjo-Kazooie, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and Yoshi's Story. Originally expected by Christmas, all are due after February. Nintendo plans a $10 million campaign with Taco Bell to promote Banjo-Kazooie.

Nintendo is refusing to compromise quality by rushing games to market, says Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan. "The delay is based on us demanding A-plus quality." Nintendo's planned lineup could have helped narrow its deficit in the next-generation hardware market. Sony has sold more than 6 million PlayStation game systems; Nintendo, 3.5 million N64 systems. (Sony started a year earlier.) 10 states check health overtoiling NEW YORK At least 10 states are looking into whether ColumbiaHCA Healthcare Corp. overbilled state health programs for the poor, adding to an expanding federal probe of the hospital chain.

"We're still sifting through loads of documents. But I suspect that, in the end, we will find some state interests that need to be addressed," said Lt. Col. Earl Morris of Utah's Division of Criminal Investigations. Columbia spokesman Jeff Prescott said it's not surprising that states would start their own probes following the federal investigation, which has resulted in the indictment of three mid-level managers in Florida on Medicaid fraud charges.

Officials in Arkansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming told The Associated Press this week they are examining whether the company overbilled Medicaid programs. 'Alice' will sign your cheesehead ASHWAUBENON Add Alice in Dairyland to your Packers-Bears weekend attractions. Alice (Courtney Ott of Forest Junction) will autograph cheesehead hats with the Wisconsin Grade AA seal from noon to 1:30 jn. Monday at Coppa Food Center, 1291 Lombardi Access Road. "We started this tradition during the playoffs last season and people loved it," said Mark Leidl, marketing division administrator with the state Agriculture Department Alice is a full-time, one-year public relations position with the department's marketing division.

I Staff and wire service reports AP photo Crowded skies? Ground crewman wait as the Goodyear blimp "Spirit of Akron" makes a final approach to the company's facility east of Akron, Ohio. Goodyear is getting some serious competition in the blimp business. of rivalry. A cartoon depicting a deflated MetLife blimp and a photo of the Bud One Airship with a dart sticking in it decorate the walls in the office at the base for the Spirit of Akron, Goodyear's 205-foot-long flagship. As Goodyear has long known, blimps' cruising speed of 35 mph and ability to stay aloft for long periods make them ideal for shooting aerial footage of outdoor sporting events.

When Goodyear covers an event, the company brings its own camera crew and equipment. But a decision for TV broadcasting rights that once went to Goodyear by default is now in the hands of the networks, "Someone once said that blimps are only good for making people smile and dogs bark," said Michael Bolton, marketing manager for the Lightship Group, which leases blimps to corporations. "Well, if it makes people smile I think from a NT "LVE'lfE GOT 'EPJ3 ML --'3 if -JTZ3; i If -mm- 3.SV3WVlHSODfc?" iiiiimh ini mr iiiu ill I "IiwJj ill mil mmn mi li! iiiliii I i mu I i 1 1 i i 'ii in ii in in i i hi n. i ii i mn i mm. lit I .0 i -w- a vi ii i i ii iiri i I 1 I 1 I I i I I II I LI ll I I I I I I I I T.TJZ lift I 8 VIJIH I.