Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Tuesday, March 24, 1998
Hawaii's jobless rate steady at 5.6%
Hawaii's February jobless rate was unchanged from the previous month at 5.6 percent, the state said today.Some 33,100 people were unemployed last month, while 558,700 held jobs, according to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The number of nonagricultural jobs grew by 3,600 to 530,800, but that was down less than 1 percent from a year earlier.
Much of last month's gains came in the government and services sectors, the department said. Government jobs rose by 2,600, mostly in the education and social services areas. More than 1,400 jobs were created in the services sector, the agency said.
On the down side, the retail trade lost 300 jobs and construction had 200 fewer positions. However, the state said recent major layoffs that were announced last month were not reflected in the figures.
Honolulu's jobless rate was 4.7 percent, down from 4.8 percent in January.
The national figure for February was 5.0 percent.
Interactive TV comes to isle hotel rooms
A Massachusetts company, SeaChange International Inc., has installed an interactive TV system at Oceanic Cable, allowing Oceanic to provide video on demand and other interactive services to television sets in island hotel rooms.The system enables Oceanic to expand its delivery of movies, video games and other services such as advertising promotions and foreign language TV to hotel guests.
The Ala Moana and Pagoda hotels already have the service and it will be extended next quarter to the Halekulani, Waikiki Parc and Ilikai Nikko Hawaii. By mid-year Oceanic, a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., is expected to be offering such services in more than 3,000 Hawaii hotel rooms.
The services, provided through Oceanic by GuestServe Systems, a Novato, Calif., subsidiary of SeaChange, essentially turn each hotel room into a cable subscriber.
Apple pressing Jobs to take job, report says
NEW YORK -- Apple Computer Inc. directors today are expected to press co-founder Steve Jobs to accept their twice-sweetened offer and become the company's permanent chief executive officer, the Wall Street Journal reported.Board members want Jobs, who is interim chief executive, to take a lucrative package that includes options to acquire about 6 million shares, plus 1 million shares of restricted stock, people familiar with the issue told the Journal. Among other things, Apple board members are expected to consider imposing a deadline by which Jobs must decide, the paper said.
FelCor to buy Bristol Hotel Co. for $1.9 billion
DALLAS -- FelCor Suite Hotels Inc. agreed to buy Bristol Hotel Co.'s hotel properties for about $1.9 billion in stock and assumed debt, making it the largest owner of Holiday Inns and expanding it beyond all-suite hotels.Before the purchase, Bristol said it will spin off a new company that will manage its former hotels. The purchase will more than double the number of properties owned by FelCor, which has hotels under such brands as Embassy Suites, Bloomberg News reported.
FelCor expects the move to add to earnings as it renovates the hotels to boost occupancy and room rates.
The transaction is the second in as many weeks where a hotel operator agreed to link up with a real estate investment trust to take advantage of the special tax-saving status awarded to REITs.