ALTRES seeking nurses for flu season

ALTRES Medical is seeking more than 300 registered nurses, nursing assistants and medical assistants to administer flu shots to Hawaii students and to assist at school flu clinics statewide. ALTRES Medical said qualified applicants can apply at www.altresmedical.com. Pay rates will be determined by medical license category.

For the past four years, ALTRES Medical has been chosen to manage the statewide flu clinics for the state Department of Health. The Stop Flu at School influenza vaccination clinics will be held on mostly public school campuses — and some private schools — on all islands.

ALTRES Medical is a part of the ALTRES family of companies, which include ALTRES Medical, ALTRES Staffing, simplicityHR by ALTRES, and KilaKila Employer Services. The family-owned business has 168 employees in six office locations.

HawTel to invest $25M in undersea cable

Hawaiian Telcom will contribute $25 million for partial ownership in the first submarine cable directly connecting the United States to Indonesia.

The cable will connect Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and California by the end of 2016, according to a statement.

Hawaiian Telcom has joined other international telecommunications companies to form the Southeast Asia-United States, or SEA-US consortium, which will build and operate the new trans-Pacific submarine cable.

The SEA-US system will deliver a state-of-the-art 100 gigabytes per second, (gbps) ultra-long haul system, that will provide an initial 20 terabytes per second (tbps) of capacity, over approximately 15,000 kilometers of fiber.

"Hawaiian Telcom is proud to participate in this landmark project," Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom president and CEO, said in a statement. "Our investment in the SEA-US submarine cable system furthers our strategy to invest in our network and systems, and provides us with a unique opportunity to participate in the growing demand for trans-Pacific bandwidth."

Japan’s economy shows signs of weakness

TOKYO » Japan’s vital signs remained weak in July as wages fell further and household spending dropped, signaling continued weakness in the world’s third-largest economy.

Data released Friday showed the inflation rate was unchanged from the previous month. The core price consumer index that excludes volatile fresh food prices rose 3.3 percent in July, the same as a month earlier. Much of the increase stems from a 2 percentage point increase in Japan’s sales tax in April, which has since sapped much of the steam from the country’s economic recovery.

Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government and central bank have sought to spur inflation on the premise that it would goad businesses and consumers into spending more instead of saving money in anticipation of lower prices in the future.

That strategy, dubbed "Abenomics," has made some headway in ending the long spell of deflation that slowed growth for much of the past two decades. But headline inflation remains below the official target of 2 percent, excluding the boost from the tax hike, and so far there are only scant signs of the desired "virtuous cycle" of higher corporate spending to sustain growth in the long term.

U.S. jobless aid applications slip to 298K

WASHINGTON » The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 298,000, a low level that signals employers are cutting few jobs and hiring is likely to remain strong.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 299,750, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s just 6,000 higher than four weeks ago, when the average fell to the lowest level in more than eight years. Applications are a proxy for layoffs. When employers hold onto their workers, it suggests they are more confident in the economy and could step up hiring. The applications data is the latest sign the job market is steadily healing.

ON THE MOVE

Hawaii National Bank has announced:

>>Royce Fukuroku has been hired as an assistant vice president and loan officer for its Maui branches. He was previously in the marketing and business development on Maui.

>>Amy Tsuchiya has been promoted to assistant vice president and manager at its Hilo branch. She joined the bank as a management trainee in 2011.

 

Carl T. Takamura has been appointed to AARPHawaii’s Executive Council. His business experience includes serving as an executive director of the Hawaii Business Roundtable and as a government affairs administrator for GTE Hawaiian Telephone Co. Takamura also was a state legislator as well as a special assistant to Gov. George Ariyoshi.