Talk Story
THE Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Hawaii and South Dakota saw the nation's largest drops in unemployment from December through January. Although that information is practically meaningless, the Wall Street Journal printed the item on its Tuesday front page with the suggestion: "Places to move?" Hawaii leads nation in
one unemployment statisticI'd pick Hawaii over South Dakota. However, the truth behind the statistic is that 26,154 Hawaii workers were unemployed last August. By January, that number had grown to 28,740 and the unemployment rate increased from 4.3 to 4.7 percent.
The good news is that things are improving. Hawaii unemployment peaked in November at 34,878 or 5.7 percent, but now we've almost returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
The rest of the good news is that total employment actually increased 0.1 percent to 579,322 from 578,540 between August and January -- 782 more people had jobs.
Year over year, the total number of jobs in Hawaii increased 0.8 percent between January 2001 and January 2002. Despite the fact that the January 2001 unemployment rate was only 4.1 percent, 4,693 more people were working this year.
By comparison, in chilly South Dakota -- where the official nickname used to be "The Sunshine State" -- unemployment dropped to 3.1 percent in January from 4 percent in December.
Year-over-year employment in South Dakota increased by 4,373 jobs or 1.1 percent. In other words, job growth there was 37.5 percent better than ours.
I'd still rather be in Hawaii.
NEWSPAPERS in Hawaii generated a lot of news a year ago tomorrow, when on March 15 the Star-Bulletin was relaunched as a separate entity in competition with former business partner, Gannett's Advertiser.
Now Japanese newspapers are making news, too. In tight economic times, major daily papers there have apparently abandoned the practice of observing monthly "newspaper holidays."
I can only remember one newspaper holiday in my 30-year newspaper career. The occasion was a blizzard that totally paralyzed the mainland Northeast, including Wilmington, Del., where I worked.
Our publisher decided to skip a day of publication and sent employees home when it became clear that the next shift couldn't dig out in time to get to the office and there was no way delivery trucks and carriers could plow through the drifts.
His bad. The industry's standard procedure is to print the best paper possible and make every effort to deliver it -- if not today then tomorrow, or as soon as weather permits. Taking a day off forfeits a day's advertising revenue and subscribers will want credit for a day.
Moreover, it leaves a gap in history. After all, a blizzard big enough to paralyze an entire region is a news event worth documenting.
Back to Japan. According to the WSJ, Japanese newspapers have traditionally shut down once a month. They say it's to provide a break for delivery employees.
True to traditions of cozy cooperation within the Japanese press, each Jan. 1 Tokyo's two major dailies, the Mainichi and Asahi, would announce the 12 holiday dates they planned to close and all major Japanese papers would follow suit.
Last Monday was a scheduled newspaper holiday, but it didn't happen. Every major paper published.
Cracks appeared in the long-standing tradition last month, when the Sankei Shimbun announced it would publish a "special edition" on the Feb. 12 planned holiday. Sankei's larger competitors, citing reader interest in Winter Olympics coverage, jumped on the bandwagon with special editions of their own.
Last Monday's editions went without the special-edition tag. The tipping point had passed and it appears there's no going back.
Japanese publishers say the jury's still out on whether newspaper holidays are gone for good or just reduced in number.
Having been a publisher myself, I'm betting that 12 additional days of revenues per year will be irresistible. Other things being equal, they represent more than 3 percent in growth -- not bad in a depressed economy.
WHILE touring Kauai with us, my cousin observed that in Hawaii we can't play the license-plate game -- a favorite pastime for kids on family trips in the lower 48. Trying to spot out-of-state plates isn't much fun when there aren't any.
An alternative is a game based on James Lipton's book, Exhaltation of Larks, a compilation of actual "nouns of multitude," such as gaggle of geese, gam of whales, knot of toads and cowardice of curs.
After we played for a few hours, these were my favorites: block of writers, clutch of mechanics, deviation of statisticians, case of lawyers, fidget of 5-year-olds, constipation of cheeses, dose of doctors, heard (sic) of reporters, permanence of hair stylists, tremor of seismologists and wince of punsters.
But the winner was corruption of councilmen.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.