May 25, 1993

Even amid the steep job losses that have buffeted the New York City economy since 1989, the city's health care industry has grown rapidly, solidifying its position as the city's largest employer by far, according to a new Federal report. But the explosive growth of the industry also underscores a problem for the city, experts say, as the skills and education demanded by health-care jobs outpace what New York's young workers have to offer.

When the Supreme Court first considered whether the Constitution should protect private homosexual acts, the Justices showed little interest. Only two of the nine voted in 1985 even to hear the case of an Atlanta man arrested for having sex with another man in his own bedroom. But over the next year and a half, the case known as Bowers v. Hardwick became a high-stakes poker game among the Justices, as conservatives and liberals on the Court struggled behind the scenes to make it a definitive constitutional statement on homosexual rights.

Companies The three top rivals for the right to develop high-definition television in the United States agreed to join forces on a single approach, hastening the biggest change in broadcasting since the advent of color in the 1950's. The agreement eliminates the likelihood of protracted disputes and litigation. [ Page A1. ] The General Motors purchasing executive who left for Volkswagen denied taking any G.M. documents, filed a defamation complaint against the auto maker, and for the first time gave his reasons for resigning suddenly in March. [ D1. ]

The New York Times introduces a new listing of stock options today, consolidating coverage of stock options that trade on more than one exchange and providing comprehensive coverage of the most active options and the ones that rise and fall the most. The table appears on page D17. Options provide relatively low-cost ways to speculate on stock prices and also offer opportunities to protect a stock portfolio. In addition, the trading in options can provide indications of which stocks are attracting the most speculative interest.

The Supreme Court ruled in an important pension case today that employers cannot meet their financing obligations to employee pension plans by selling or transferring real property to the plans. In an 8-to-1 decision, the Court overturned a ruling by a Federal appeals court in New Orleans that United States Government pension regulators had viewed as opening a loophole in the rules governing defined-benefit plans.