Still hard to figure.

• Author: Kinney, David
• Position: BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA

As the silver type in the red bar of our logo on the cover indicates, we've begun the year that we'll celebrate the magazine's 25th anniversary. When we reach that mark this fall, we'll have published 300 issues, several thousand stories and many millions of words. It's a big chore putting out BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA each month, but nothing matches the sweat that goes into producing this Business Handbook issue each year.

Just ask Frank Maley. He's the senior editor who has ramrodded the project the last three years. Initial planning on next year's issue begins soon after this year's goes to the printer, and some of the work gets under way by midsummer. A dozen years now, we've gleaned data from scores of sources to paint the most comprehensive picture available of the North Carolina economy. But probably no task is as tedious as compiling our annual listing of the 100 largest employers, which begins on page 16.

The effort normally starts in early September. The Employment Security Commission provides a ranking of companies with more than 1,000 employees, but confidentiality requirements bar it from revealing exact numbers. That's what we request from companies by fax. Some, but not most, comply right away. So we start working the phones. It can take dozens of calls to find the right person to badger. Often we don't finish until a few days before deadline.

This time, we thought it would be easier. John Kasarda, director of UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, figured his staff had the expertise and resources to compile the list in a less labor-intensive way--plus add the sheen of the institute's prestige to the product.

The job fell to [C.sup.3]E--the institute's Carolina Center for Competitive Economies. Faculty...