PriceChange16-pound turkey$19.09+$1.46 Cube stuffing, 14 oz.$2.57+17 cents 30 ounces of pumpkin pie mix$2.34+21 cents Two pie shells$2.26+18 cents Three pounds of sweet potatoes$3.12+4 cents A dozen rolls$2.20+31 cents One pound of green peas$1.58+12 cents One-pound relish tray of carrots and celery82 cents+16 cents One gallon of whole milk$3.78-10 cents Fresh cranberries, 12 oz.$2.46+26 cents Half pint of cream$1.70+14 centsMiscellaneous ingredients like onions, eggs, sugar, flour$2.69-60 centsTotal$44.61+$2.35

SOURCE: American Farm Bureau Federation

Meat producers have been struggling this year with higher costs for key ingredients such as corn, soybeans, and oil, part of why the cost of beef and chicken has risen so much. Turkey producers are facing all the same pressures but don’t have the same economies of scale and have to plan a year in advance for the one day a year they count on most.

Some 46 million turkeys will be eaten on Thanksgiving Day, about the same as in previous years, said Sherrie Rosenblatt, spokeswoman for the National Turkey Federation.

“That’s basically most Americans having turkey at the center of their plate,” she said.

Consumers will see good prices this year, Rosenblatt said, since retailers will again heavily advertise turkey at prices where they may not make any money on the deal in hopes that shoppers drawn in by the lower price will buy lots of other products.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates a Thanksgiving meal for the average gathering of 10 will cost $44.61 this year, up 5.5 percent from last year. That includes a 9-cent a pound increase for turkey, the group said this week, noting that the cost of the meal was still less than the same meal 20 years ago, when stripping out inflation.

Jennie-O is again touting its Oven Ready product line, featuring turkeys that go from the freezer to the oven already cleaned, seasoned, and sealed in a cooking bag. Butterball, the market leader, will again be running its telephone hot line and is now offering cooking tips via text message as well.

It’s prime turkey-eating time in an industry that produced about $13.9 billion worth of product last year. But even the seasonal sales boost won’t ease the industry’s sagging profit margins.

Too much meat on the market, high prices for commodities and fuel, and weaker demand from restaurants have sliced into profits. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken producer, is sagged by debt and using temporary credit lines to stay afloat. Some observers worry Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, may also have too much debt.

Turkeys are likewise in trouble, but on a smaller scale since people eat more beef, chicken, and pork overall. Turkey producers say prices edged up slightly, but not enough to recoup the costs of raising the gobblers this year.

Major producers like Butterball LLC and Hormel Foods Corp., which has the Jennie-O Turkey Store, are cutting production to help raise prices. But analysts say those moves are coming too late to help the industry during its biggest selling season.

About 29 percent of all turkey consumed during the year is eaten during the holidays, industry figures show, though that’s down from 50 percent in 1970 as more people eat turkey year-round, especially in the form of sandwiches and ground turkey.

Turkey producers must plan far in advance for the Thanksgiving holiday, where they sell the majority of whole birds for the year, said Keith Shoemaker, chief executive of Butterball. The eggs for the turkeys being consumed this Thanksgiving were laid in July just as commodity prices approached record highs.

“In 2008, it was kind of the perfect storm. Corn prices were high, there was oversupply, and speculation helped to drive it more,” Shoemaker said. “Ethanol helped to drive it more, and the value of US currency made it cheaper for other people to import grain, and also import turkey.”

The turkey industry has also had to reverse direction - after having a good year in 2006, producers ramped up production the next year and are now having a tough time scaling back, Shoemaker said.

Just like beef, pork, and chicken companies, turkey producers have been announcing production cuts as a way to boost prices. But those won’t take effect in time for the holiday.

Christopher Bledsoe, an agribusiness analyst at Barclays Capital, agreed that the cuts won’t be realized until next year because turkeys take about twice as long as chickens to produce, meaning any production cuts require longer to take effect.

“I think that this Thanksgiving will be somewhat lost to the producers,” Bledsoe said. “I think the fundamentals will remain challenging for the processors.”

The workers make Spam, perhaps the iconic hard-times food in the American pantry.

Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign of the times, it is happening again.

In a factory that abuts Interstate 90, two shifts of workers have been making Spam seven days a week since July, and they have been told that the relentless work schedule will continue indefinitely.

Spam, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by food elites and skewered by comedians who have offered smart-alecky theories on its name (one G-rated example: Something Posing As Meat).

But these days, consumers are rediscovering relatively cheap foods, Spam among them. A 12-ounce can of Spam, marketed as “Crazy Tasty,” costs about $2.40. “People are realizing it’s not that bad a product,” said Dan Johnson, who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven.

Hormel declined to cooperate with this article, but several veteran workers said they been through boom times before - but nothing like this.

Spam “seems to do well when hard times hit,” said Dan Bartel, business agent for United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 9. “We’ll probably see Spam lines instead of soup lines.”

Even as consumers are cutting back on all sorts of goods, Spam is among a select group of economical grocery items that are selling steadily.

Pancake mixes and instant potatoes are booming. So are vitamins, fruit and vegetable preservatives, and beer, according to Information Resources, a market research firm.

“We’ve seen a double-digit increase in the sale of rice and beans,” said Teena Massingill, spokeswoman for the Safeway grocery chain. “They’re real belly fillers.”

Kraft Foods said recently that some of its value-oriented products like macaroni and cheese, Jell-O, and Kool-Aid were experiencing robust growth. And sales are still growing, for Velveeta, a Kraft product that bears the same passing resemblance to cheese as Spam bears to ham.

Invented during the Great Depression by Jay Hormel, the son of the company’s founder, Spam is a combination of ham, pork, sugar, salt, water, potato starch, and a “hint” of sodium nitrate “to help Spam keep its gorgeous pink color,” according to Hormel.

Because it does not require refrigeration, Spam can last for years. Hormel says “it’s like meat with a pause button.”

During World War II, Spam became a staple for Allied troops overseas. They introduced it to local residents, and it remains popular in many parts of the world where the troops were stationed.

The company would not discuss more recent sales of the product or permit a tour of the Spam factory, citing rules that Hormel said prevented it from speaking ahead of a forthcoming earnings report.

However, Hormel executives appear to be banking on the theory that Spam fits nicely into recession budgets. Workers on the Spam line in Austin - more than 40 work two shifts - see no signs that their schedule will let up.

“We are scheduled to work every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Darwin Sellers, 56, who adds salt, sugar, and nitrates to batches of Spam. Hormel chief executive Jeffrey Ettinger “is negotiating with the man upstairs to get us to work eight days a week,” Sellers said.

Sellers said he had not seen much of his family in recent months, but the grueling schedule had been good for his checkbook. He bought a new television and planned to replace a 20-year-old refrigerator.

Unlike his colleagues though, he has no plans to stock up on Spam. “It’s not something I’ve ever developed a taste for,” he said.

A rising segment of the public, it seems, does have a taste for Spam, which nowadays is available in several varieties, including Spam Low Sodium, Spam with Cheese, and Spam Hot & Spicy.

James Bate, a 48-year-old sausage maker, was buying it at Wal-Mart in Cleveland recently. Not only was it cheap, but he said it brought back fond memories of his grandfather making him Spam sandwiches.

“You can mix it with tomatoes and onions and make a good meal out of it,” he said. “A little bit of this stuff goes a long way.”

“It’s like being the director of a movie that is never finished,” says Steefel, of the subscription-based game that has hundreds of thousands of players. “My typical day is like jumping out of an airplane. I never know where I’ll land.”

Log on to Lord of the Rings Online (www.lotro.com) and you’ll be transported into Middle-earth, J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional fantasy universe where you can meet Gandalf and Bilbo, and put on the enchanted cloak of regeneration in your quest for the ring.

“It’s a 3-D immersive world, and you’re dumped in as a character from Tolkien, where all the things in the book are happening, and you can go on epic quests,” says Steefel.

In this carefully crafted world, the landscape and terrain, cities and towns strive to be a virtual reproduction of the Third Age, where the Free Peoples must face the threatening shadow growing in the East. Developing this game “is kind of like taking a film production, cable network, and software application team and putting them all together in one place,” says Steefel.

“We can be sitting in a very serious meeting and be talking about how the chicken is not behaving properly or people are falling through the worlds,” says Steefel. “If the giant troll is broken, this is a tragedy. We can be here until 3 in the morning with engineers, trying to diagnose how to fix it.”

At Turbine Inc., the Westwood gaming company that also makes Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach, Steefel admits there is “the typical creative geek atmosphere” which includes a game room stacked with sci-fi novels, equipped with leather reclining couches, pool table, foosball table - and numerous video game machines. He works with a number of people who are novelty game collectors. One team member is the “world designer,” as well as a published fantasy author. Another co-worker is a Tolkien scholar who can read and write Elvish, the Tolkien language.

“I myself know more about Tolkien than I ever thought possible,” says Steefel, who says a game developer can earn from $30,000 up to $300,000, depending on the company and responsibilities.

For his part, Steefel grew up wanting to be an astronaut until he realized “motion sickness and the military were involved.” Instead, he turned to the odd combination of engineering and professional acting, skills which perfectly mesh with his current role, which combines storytelling, visual, and musical arts in a performance masterpiece. “I’m still not an astronaut, but I’m flying through space every day,” says Steefel.

This video game took about three years to build, and tens of millions of dollars, but you sometimes find yourself fixated on minute details like the red squirrel. Tell us about the red squirrel dilemma.
That was a big uproar on the game message boards. There was a red squirrel in the game, and everyone knows that Tolkien’s world is based on the Anglo-Saxon universe where there would be no red squirrels. But, it turns out that our resident Tolkien expert found proof in the literature that there really was a red squirrel. But until then, the red squirrel almost brought us down.

Gamers must spend hours in Middle-earth - or they’d never worry about red squirrels.
There are players who will literally play for days, continuously spending anywhere from 30-50 hours online. It takes 350 hours to completely play the entire game, and there is an expansion coming out in a few days that will extend that to 500 hours.

Do you build these games so that they are addicting?
People who are addictive by nature will be drawn to anything, whether it be shopping or drinking, or, in this case, playing video games. We have built in a feature that tells you what time it is. In some Asian countries, like China in particular, it is even more of a problem. People are so committed to a game that they actually will die because they haven’t taken a break. We work with the government to put in game alerts such as “It’s been four hours, it’s time to stop.”

You have a son, 11. Wouldn’t it be fun to add some element to the game that is just for him?
Those are called “Easter Eggs” and in the old days, we would do things like that, but today, the stakes are getting higher, so we tend to be less loosey goosey. Of course, for all I know, maybe one of the engineers has done that for their kid.

I have to ask, are you a geek?
My wife says I am. I make games for a living and I have every gadget known to man. I have so many gadgets that I need a special bag just to carry all the adaptors. So, yes, I am a geek.

The greatest renewable natural resource we’ve got in New England is smart young people. Hundreds of thousands of them are getting educated in our region right now; in Massachusetts alone, about 75,000 will earn degrees come May. And once springtime approaches, most graduates will return home or seek their fortunes elsewhere - often in Silicon Valley.

A study commissioned by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce last month found that over the next five years, Massachusetts will have the lowest rate of population growth of any state, when you’re looking specifically at people 25 years old or older who’ve earned at least a bachelor’s degree. Joining us on the laggards list are neighboring states Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine.

“Our problem in New England is that the ripe entrepreneur-age kids are leaving in droves,” says Santinelli, a consultant and ex-venture capitalist who also teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley. “Our biggest export is brains.”

Even in a recession - perhaps especially in a recession - we ought to be focused on retaining more of those sharp young whippersnappers and encouraging them to join local companies or start ones of their own.

Here are some thoughts on what companies, universities, trade associations, and venture capital firms could be doing differently. But this column is only intended to kick-start the conversation; we need to do some serious brainstorming, and make some fast changes, to make the New England innovation economy more welcoming of students.

Associations Most of Boston’s trade groups do a dismal job of opening their arms to students. Even the Boston Chamber of Commerce, which just published that study about sustaining our region’s talent advantage, doesn’t explain on its website that students can often attend events at no charge, or at the very least pay the member rate if their school is a chamber member. “In terms of a clear process for students to attend events, there hasn’t been one,” acknowledges Erin Murphy, vice president of communications. “It doesn’t mean we’re against it or don’t welcome it, but it hasn’t been at the top of our list.”

The same is true of most other organizations, from the Massachusetts Medical Device Council to the Technology Leadership Council. If students pick up the phone and call the group, they’ll often find out they can get a complimentary pass to an event. But the websites offer no sign that students are invited to attend. The best counter-example is the Boston chapter of TIE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, which offers a student membership for $25. That enables students to attend the organization’s events for just $10 or $20. (Normal rates are $25; or $45 for nonmembers.)

Flybridge Capital Partners, a Boston venture capital firm, plans to launch a website called “Stay in MA” next month that will offer scholarships to students to attend events that cost up to $100. That’s a great idea, and they’re putting $5,000 into the fund as a pilot test.

Venture capital firms Boston’s venture capitalists seem to believe that any company you mention that was started by recent graduates - or even college drop-outs - is an anomaly, unlikely to ever happen again. Facebook? A one-off. IRobot? You can’t bank on MIT gearheads starting a company with their professor. Akamai Technologies? You can’t bank on MIT mathematicians starting a company with their professor. Microsoft? Dell?

Still, inexplicably, most Boston area venture capital firms steer clear of student entrepreneurs. It’d be nice to see the dozens of venture capital firms in town get together to put on a big annual event for students, or organize smaller gatherings at their offices. Exposure to real-live student entrepreneurs might slowly change investors’ minds about the viability of student-spawned ventures. Or at least it would offer investors the opportunity to try to recruit talented students to work for their portfolio companies.

General Catalyst, a venture capital firm in Cambridge, runs a series of breakfasts for MBA students, which is a good start. But the breakfasts are only open to students at Harvard and MIT. We need events that are open to anyone, whether they’re enrolled at MIT, WIT, or WPI.

Companies Most big companies have the resources to do on-campus recruiting or run internship programs. But many small and midsize companies either don’t advertise internship opportunities or don’t feel they have the resources to operate internships. Spending a few days each spring visiting campus career fairs can also be taxing for harried start-ups.

But Sally Phelps, the director of postgraduate planning at Needham’s Olin College of Engineering, says there are ways for small companies to have an impact with minimal investment. Watertown-based SoftArtisans, a software developer, invites a group of Olin students to the company’s headquarters each year, offers them transportation via a shuttle bus, gives them a tour, and conducts some job interviews on-site. “By the end of one afternoon, they have a pretty good idea of who they might want to hire,” Phelps says. “And for a small school like Olin, people on campus really know who that company is.”

Companies could also create a “speaker’s bureau” page on their websites, offering company representatives to give presentations to college classes or clubs. And I’m fond of the idea that some of our bigger companies, like Genzyme Corp., Zipcar Inc., Fidelity Investments, and EMC Corp., ought to offer an annual open house day, when students could sign up for company tours and meet some of the firms’ employees.

Universities Bentley University in Waltham runs an “employers-in-residence” program, where once a week, employers come in for a three-hour stretch to consult with students. “It’s not about being hired,” says Len Morrison, the school’s executive director of corporate relations. “They provide career advice.” About 25 companies participate, with about three sending representatives to Bentley on any given week. MIT’s Sloan School of Management is well known for its E-Lab course, where students work one day a week at a start-up company, focusing on a discrete project. More schools ought to present students with consistent opportunities like that to connect with local companies throughout the school year - rather than just when they’re job hunting.

And universities could do a better job of communicating with employers: What are the best practices for running internship programs for their students? What are the dates that campus career fairs or other recruiting events take place? It’s surprisingly hard to find that information on many schools’ websites. (Officials like Morrison at Bentley say they’re also willing to meet with companies in person to share their advice about starting an internship program or doing on-campus recruiting.)

Universities might also let various industry associations know that they’ve got space available (free or cheap) on campus for meetings and conferences. Bringing more events to campus, as opposed to holding them in hotels in Waltham or Burlington, is a great way to ensure that more students can attend.

What other ideas do you have? I’d love to hear them at the Innovation Economy blog: www.innoeco.com/2008/11/student-brainstorming.html.

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com.

Now, he makes weekly trips to the Dedham store to feed his family of three, spending $200 on milk, meat, vegetables, along with prepared foods. Naumes, 52, is spending almost three times more at BJ’s - but he’s still saving about $40 a week overall by avoiding grocery stores.

“We can get everything we need for lower prices and it’s more convenient,” said Naumes, of Westwood, who dropped his membership to Costco last year. “Some of it is bulk, but it’s smaller bulk than at Costco.”

It’s customers like Naumes that have helped BJ’s Wholesale Club emerge as one of the rare bright spots in this abysmal retail environment. While many merchants are biting their nails, closing shops, and shedding jobs in the midst of one of the worst retail seasons in decades, BJ’s Wholesale Club, with its discounted goods, is pretty giddy.

The 177-store chain saw sales soar 11.6 percent to $739 million in October, a stronger performance than its much bigger rivals Sam’s Club and Costco. BJ’s reported traffic increased 6 percent last month and the average ticket increased 1 percent, modest, but significant gains in this tough environment. Meanwhile, BJ’s, which has no debt, is capitalizing on the woes of other chains and planning to accelerate its store openings, including taking over a shop near Scarsdale, N.Y., that was supposed to be occupied by struggling Home Depot.

“It’s uncanny how much wholesale clubs have benefited,” said Laura Sen, BJ’s chief operating officer. “There’s been an overall migration to value by consumers, and the current economic environment has just accelerated that.”

In some ways, BJ’s is outperforming its peers because of its increased emphasis on consumers, according to analysts. Costco and Sam’s Club draw a larger base of business shoppers, while BJ’s attracts more consumers who shop more often for everyday grocery needs.

But BJ’s also had more room to grow than its competitors did.

Just two years ago, the company battled a seemingly endless series of problems with its sales, pharmacy business, and leadership. In 2006, BJ’s, a distant third to Sam’s and Costco, shuttered its pharmacy division and brought Herb Zarkin out of retirement to take the reins at the beleaguered discounter, a job he last held in the early 1990s.

His focus on efficiencies and more fresh foods has helped strengthen the retailer and prepare it to take advantage of the tough economic conditions that have shoppers flocking to its stores.

Since Zarkin’s return, BJ’s has made the back of the store a top priority. He cut prices on traffic-driving merchandise such as milk and butter, which were no longer competitive with larger warehouse rivals. The company shaved its store hours, operating from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and invested the savings from fewer operating hours into getting more profitable and better quality produce, fresh meats, and baked goods - the items that are attracting customers like Naumes - and making sure these more profitable offerings stay stocked.

Zarkin also brought back executives like Sen, who had worked with him during his first stint with the company, to help reform the Natick chain. BJ’s slashed its unwieldy assortment of merchandise, narrowing its selection to the most profitable and best-selling items, and improved its brands, offering lines from Liz Claiborne and Kenneth Cole. In recent months, BJ’s has added popular brands to its prepared food section, including Boston Market roasted garlic mashed potatoes, Panera Bread soups, and Legal Sea Foods chowder.

Meanwhile, Sen said the growing number of retail collapses has enabled BJ’s to make strategic buys, most recently some OshKosh merchandise from the department store Mervyn’s, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Over the summer, BJ’s received a big boost from rising gas prices that lured customers to its stores that offer gas at a lower cost than most gas stations, according to recent reports by Daniel Binder, a retail analyst with Jeffries & Co. This enticed members to stock up on merchandise after filling up on fuel. And as gas prices dropped in recent weeks, BJ’s was able to widen the price gap with local competitors who were slow to respond and generate better-than-expected double-digit increases in gas sales in October, Binder said.

During these difficult economic times, consumers looking for bargains - but who don’t have families of five or six to feed - are increasingly pooling their resources with friends or family to shop together at warehouse clubs, according to Wendy Liebmann of WSL Strategic Retail in New York. These are not only middle-income shoppers, but higher-income shoppers as well, Liebmann said.

“No need to have the entire 24-pack of paper towels or tissues, no need to have the whole crate of oranges or multipacks of household chemicals. Instead, they are combining their lists and dividing up the big shop into more affordable (but still great value) little shops,” Liebmann wrote in a recent retail report.

Indeed, BJ’s is looking to capitalize on this group, featuring in its holiday preview newsletter siblings and roommates who shop together and save on gas, time, and money. BJ’s says new memberships are up, along with renewal rates, though the company declined to provide specifics.

Despite BJ’s success, analysts remain concerned that lower gas prices will eventually slow traffic to BJ’s and that rival warehouse clubs will step up the competition. Binder said it is likely that Costco could become more aggressive about lowering prices as consumers continue to slash spending.

BJ’s knows the good times may not last forever. The company is preparing for a weak holiday season, with less inventory and tepid expectations. Sales for general merchandise, like televisions and jewelry, have declined in recent months. But company officials are hoping the expanded holiday food selection of tiramisu, imported cheeses, and high-end appetizers such as chicken satay will drive business and that other irresistible deals will force BJ’s customers like Greg Sanborn to open his wallet a little more.

“I am much more conscious about my shopping,” Sanborn said. “I don’t run through the aisles and grab stuff I don’t need. I get stuff strictly on my list.”

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.

L.F., Tucson

A. Holiday season is clearly upon us. Recently I have received letters like this one asking how to address business cards and correspondence, so here’s a breakdown of the different combinations and ways to address business mail this holiday season.

The most basic way to address a married couple with the same last name is “Mr. and Mrs. David Jones.” A more informal and acceptable alternative is “Alice and David Jones” or “David and Alice Jones.” Today, either name can be first.

If the people have different last names but are living together as a couple, then the address would be “Alice Smith and David Jones” or “Ms. (not Mrs.) Alice Smith and Mr. David Jones” all on one line. If two people are living together but aren’t a couple, then you would write (Ms.) Alice Smith on the first line and then (Mr.) David Jones on the second line. The titles are optional.

In business correspondence if you’re sending to a married woman, use Ms. rather than Mrs. Either “Ms. Nancy Smith” or the more informal “Nancy Smith” is correct.

When writing a business communication to a lawyer, you can use the suffix Esq. or Esquire. If you use the suffix, do not also use the title Mr. or Ms. A lawyer is addressed either as “Mr. David Jones” or “David Jones, Esq.” When writing to a lawyer and spouse the title is dropped: “Mr. and Mrs. David Jones.”

Medical doctors use their title both in business and social communications. The rule of thumb when addressing people who have earned a title such as Doctor or Reverend or a military title such as Captain or General, is that person’s name comes first, a professional title comes before a social title. If the woman uses her husband’s name socially, the address is “Dr. Barbara and Mr. James Werner.” If she uses her maiden name both professionally and socially, it’s “Dr. Barbara Hanson and Mr. James Werner.” Note that her name comes first because her professional title “outranks” his social title. If both husband and wife are doctors and they use the same last name, the address is either “The Drs. Werner” or “Drs. Barbara and James Werner” either first name can go first. Either of these two options is used whenever both people have the same title.

Peter Post is the great-grandson of manners guru Emily Post and is the director of the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt.

NEED ADVICE? E-mail questions about business etiquette to bizmanners@globe.com; fax to 617-929-3183; or mail to Etiquette at Work, The Boston Globe, P.O. Box 55819, Boston, MA 02205-5819.

Nokia has 40 percent of the world’s cellphone market, but just 6 percent of the US market. How could that happen?
It’s quite useful to remember here the nature of the US market. We are only ramping up now our presence with Verizon. So the market that has been open to us has not been 100 percent of the market, but has been about 50 percent.

But is Nokia now getting more aggressive in the US?
We are investing more in the US market. We are expanding our research and development activity in San Diego. We’ve got lots of people there designing phones now that are specific to the US needs and the US market.

Sales of smartphones like the Apple iPhone have been booming. Are all cellphones destined to become little handheld computers?
There are different consumer segments that prefer different types of phones. Some people are happy with the basic communication functionality. Voice is enough for some people. Then there are some other people who really want to explore the different functionalities that are available. We need to be able to offer solutions to all of these people. One size will not fit all. Hence our strategy is to offer phones to all consumer segments, in all markets. In that way, our strategy basically differs from the strategies of the competition, who typically are targeting or concentrating on some segments or areas or price points in the marketplace. We will go for all markets, all price points, all segments. We are the market leader in smartphones. Our approach is based on the Symbian operating system. We are now, together with our partners, making it fully open . . . to everybody who wants to use the Symbian operating system.

It sounds similar to Google’s strategy of introducing the Android operating system for phones, then encouraging developers to write software for it.
We have had that for 10 years. Definitely, we are ahead.

Cellphone carriers offer 3G data services, but even faster 4G is on the way. The two leading 4G technologies are WiMax and Long Term Evolution, or LTE. Which one is Nokia backing?
We are supporting LTE . . . that remains a core investment to us. But having said that, we are also supporting other technologies that will have a major position in the marketplace. As a market leader, you need to be somewhat agnostic. If there’s a major market, you should enter and make the best out of it.

How long before we see widespread use of LTE?
We are not too far from that. We can look at LTE as starting to happen in the early part of next decade.

But WiMax is already being deployed in the United States by Sprint. How does it stack up against LTE?
Both are relevant technologies that will solve many communications needs. So in that way I would not rank them. We do have WiMax technologies. We have invested in WiMax technologies. All markets, all price points, all segments - we will go.

Could LTE or WiMax become substitutes for existing wireline-based broadband services?
The consumer, at the end of the day, doesn’t care whether it’s wireless or wireline.

A few years ago, your company’s N-Gage gaming phone was a failure. But you’re still interested in turning the phone into a major game platform. How will you do it?
We’ve got N-Gage alive as a software approach. You have N-Gage in many of our phones. We will enable many of our phones to do gaming. That’s a different type of approach that is based more on software and applications, as opposed to having a specific terminal for gaming needs. In that way we can penetrate a much bigger market. It’s a much more comprehensive gaming strategy, and we definitely see a lot of opportunity in mobile games. We have been investing quite a lot in the area, and will continue to do so.

NARIMAN BEHRAVESH
Chief economist at research and consulting firm IHS Global Insight of Waltham and author of “Spin-Free Economics.”

The single biggest challenge facing the US economy today is limiting the depth and duration of the recession we are in. This downturn is likely to be bad, with the unemployment rate rising to at least 8 percent by mid-2009 [it measured 6.1 percent in September]. With interest rates already low, and bank rescue packages already in place, there is not a lot more that the Federal Reserve Bank can do.

So, more fiscal stimulus is needed, to the tune of $150 billion to $200 billion, at a minimum. The biggest bang per buck will be achieved if the stimulus is delivered through extra spending on infrastructure and aid to cash-strapped state and local governments.

The single biggest challenge for New England is keeping its competitive edge in industries of the future such as high tech and biotech. This will mean providing tax breaks for companies in these industries to locate in this region. It will also require continued investment in education (kindergarten through college) and upgrading infrastructure (transportation, telecommunications). The short-term need for fiscal austerity should not be accomplished at the expense of these longer-term goals.

ROBERT E. GALLERY
Massachusetts state president of Bank of America Corp.

Obviously it’s difficult for everybody, and we’re prepared for that to continue for several quarters. At the same time, we’re seeing the other side of this, and we’re very much open for business. When you look at the city or the Commonwealth, we have a diverse and vibrant economic base. Look at our industries, universities, and healthcare institutions. We think the Commonwealth is very well-positioned to come through this cycle. We continue to attract and retain younger workers, and obviously it’s more possible for people to get into housing now.

Now, there isn’t a family who hasn’t seen what’s happening with their invested assets, or seen the consumer spending numbers that are coming out. People are being cautious, and of course, and that will ripple through the economy.

PAUL CIRIELLO
Founding managing director of venture capital firm Fairhaven Capital of Cambridge.

Our generation is being tested by economic turmoil, the likes of which we haven’t seen for nearly 100 years. The underlying problems are neither short-term nor sector-related. They are fundamental economic problems that could take years to correct.

Many good companies are hunkered down, focusing on how to make it through. Others may find themselves falling victim to “bottom fishers” looking for bargains.

Given the unprecedented nature of today’s situation, it is easy for people to become overly negative. But, just as it may have been wrong to get swept up in the exuberance of the past few years, it would be a mistake to write down investments too quickly today. Companies and venture firms must maintain a prudent and balanced view of the current challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead.

The road ahead will not be easy. In the near term, we are likely to experience more dislocation as the effects of the economic downturn reverberate through all industry sectors and geographic regions. But, as in the past, the cycle will turn - things always do - and you can be sure that New England innovators will once again play an important role in the next great growth period.

MIKE FADEL
Executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents more than 300,000 members and retirees.

One in six Boston jobs is in the healthcare industry. A key to protecting the local economy is improving these jobs.

Ensuring caregivers in our top industry receive good wages for hard work is not just a matter of fairness. For the local economy and the neighborhoods of Boston, it is the most direct economic stimulus package possible.

ROGER BERKOWITZ
Chief executive of Legal Sea Foods Inc., based in Boston.

This is my fourth recession and while each has its own nuances, they all boil down to the same challenge: there are too many seats in any given market and not enough guests. The Darwinian concept “survival of the fittest” clearly applies. At the end of the day, those of us who are offering great value to our guests will prevail.

The strategy to use in battling an economic downturn is not overly complicated. Restaurant operators need to show a nearly fanatical commitment to our core competencies and brand values. We must leverage our strengths to best serve an increasingly discriminating guest base.

Regardless of the industry, recessions are never easy; but, inevitably, surviving one always makes us better operators.

JOSEPH GRIMALDI
Chief executive of Mullen, a Wenham-based advertising firm.

We have entered a global recession, and advertising and marketing services are recession-sensitive industries. Consumers reduce spending and marketers cut back because no one is buying. The result in our business is that revenues decrease, margins get squeezed, and employment shrinks.

Some companies will go out of business; a few will buck the trend. But the entire chain will be affected, and no one will be immune - not new media, old media, or anything in between. And when it’s all over, our industry will have been restructured, locally and nationally.

For me, it’s no longer about, “It is what it is.” Rather, it’s about, “It is what we make it.”

That means building a great company and brand for the future that also performs in the here and now. It involves constructing a brutally honest assessment of the next 12-18 months; recalibrating the organization to that assessment; articulating a vision that our people embrace and that excites them; and having people who pursue that vision with great focus and genuine enthusiasm.

Most great fortunes are the products of bad times. And so, for us leaders, it’s time to stop defending the past and time to start creating the future.

Jenn Abelson, Robert Gavin, Ross Kerber, Robert Weisman, and Jeffrey Krasner of the Globe staff contributed to this story.

Alongside the expanding ranks of the jobless are the underemployed - part-timers who need more hours, people working below their skill level, or those juggling multiple jobs to get by.

Too often, they are burdened by twin fears: of being laid off and of not being able to find better work.

Their overall numbers are hard to track, but one key indicator of underemployment is up sharply. The number of US workers stuck in part-time positions for economic reasons rose to 6.1 million in September, up more than 30 percent from the same month last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Such data are not tracked in Massachusetts, yet officials and career counselors are seeing a corresponding, worrisome swelling in underemployment.

“Underemployment preceded the recession, and it will intensify as a result of the downturn,” said the state’s secretary for labor and workforce development, Suzanne M. Bump. It’s a “symptom of untapped capacity in the workforce.”

A decade ago, Jason Truong was profiled in the Globe because he was lucky enough to land a job months before graduating from college. Now, he’s a freshly minted MBA and father of three in Medford, selling real estate but hoping to get back into financial services. He quit his job at a bank in the spring to finish his degree and help out at home as his wife returned to full-time work.

“This is such a unique environment right now that I’m actually very scared,” said Truong, who’s been actively looking for a full-time job since September. “At the moment, I’m so scared that I might consider flipping burgers.”

This struggle to find “good” work - matching or improving upon experience or salary - is one that career counselors are seeing more often. Workers without a college degree are being bumped down the jobs ladder by new grads. Former midlevel managers can’t find similarly challenging or rewarding positions. Many take part-time jobs to get by.

“These are people who need to pay their bills, so at least for the time being are willing to take a job with fewer hours that gives them less responsibility than their previous job,” said George Moriarty, executive director of Career Place in Woburn, one of 37 state-administered “one-stop” career placement centers in Massachusetts.

Maggie Jackson is the author of “Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age”. She can be reached at www.maggie-jackson.com.