By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Last year, employers filled more than half of job openings with existing employees, a new study to be released Friday shows.

Internal transfers and promotions accounted for an average of 51% of all full-time positions filled in 2009, up from 39% in 2008 and 34% in 2007, reports CareerXroads, a staffing-strategy consulting firm in Kendall Park, N.J. Survey respondents included 41 companies that employ a combined 1.8 million U.S. workers. Last year these firms collectively filled 176,420 positions.

For the 49% of jobs that were filled with external recruits, referrals accounted for the most hires — 27% — and about the same number as in 2008. On average, these yielded one hire for every 15 referrals received. Meanwhile, company Web sites and job boards accounted for 22% and 13% of external hires, respectively.

What the findings indicate, says Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads, is that networking is the most effective strategy for landing employment. “Job seekers should use job board and corporate sites to find information about openings, but they should use their network to apply,” says Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads.

Among the job boards that respondents credited for netting outside talent, CareerBuilder.com came out on top, accounting for 42%, however one respondent claimed a significant portion of these. Monster.com netted 12% of external hires, while aggregate job sites, which advertise openings from multiple job boards, hooked 10%. Classifieds provider Craigslist.org accounted for 2.8% of external hires.

Survey respondents also said outside talent was found via job boards that specialize in advertising open positions in specific categories. For example, Dice.com, a job board for the technology sector, netted 0.8% of external hires, as did TheLadders.com, which lists only positions paying salaries of $100,000 or more. All other niche job sites that employers identified were collectively credited with bringing in 27% of external recruits.

Going forward, the survey found that 48% of respondents expect to increase hiring in 2010 compared with last year, while just 11% predicted they’d reduce hiring. The remainder said they expect to make no changes to their head counts.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported Thursday that there were 2.5 million job openings on the last business day of December 2009. The seasonally adjusted job openings rate increased just slightly to 1.9% from 1.8% the month prior.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

By CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART

When Bob Greenblatt, NBC’s entertainment chief, talks about his new comedy-heavy programming for the network’s prime-time schedule this fall, he likes to use words like “attention getting,” “hotter,” “noisy”—and “hopeful.”

On Monday, Mr. Greenblatt will present to advertisers his first full-season lineup for NBC, a crucial step in his effort to revitalize a network that has long been stuck in fourth place in total prime-time viewers. A lot of its hopes are riding on his choices.

Mr. Greenblatt and NBC will kick off a week of presentations by the largest broadcast networks ahead of the annual “upfront” ad-sales negotiations.

“This is clearly a big upfront for NBC,” said Todd Gordon, U.S. director of MagnaGlobal, an ad-buying unit owned by Interpublic Group

of Cos. “It’s not going to be easy. But it doesn’t take much more than a couple hits to get some momentum.”

To get those hits, NBC is banking in part on seven new comedies, a genre that CBS Corp.’s

namesake network has largely dominated for some time now, with hits like “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Among the new comedies ordered by Mr. Greenblatt are “Save Me,” which stars Anne Heche as a housewife who thinks she is a prophet, and “Go On,” which features “Friends” alumnus Matthew Perry as a sportscaster in group therapy.

Then there is “Guys With Kids,” produced by late-night host Jimmy Fallon, about a group of 30-something men grappling with fatherhood. Another comedy, “1600 Penn,” about a dysfunctional White House family, stars Bill Pullman.

“They all have their own special thing,” Mr. Greenblatt said of his new comedies, which will be spread across Tuesday and Friday nights.

In total, NBC added 12 scripted shows to its fall and midseason TV lineup, including the post-apocalyptic drama “Revolution” by J.J. Abrams, best known asthe creator of “Lost.”

“It’s all about attention-getting, big, bold and broad concepts,” Mr. Greenblatt said in an interview Sunday morning. “I am hopeful. That is a word that you can definitely quote me on.”

At a time when digital-video outlets like Google Inc.’s

YouTube are trying to make inroads in the ad market, the annual upfront marketplace has become a barometer of advertisers’ appetite for television. This year’s upfront isn’t expected to be as strong as in 2011, when many advertisers agreed to double-digit percentage price increases for ad time on cable and broadcast networks. But a slowly improving economy, combined with a rebound in automotive ad spending, promise a slight uptick in upfront deals.

As a ratings straggler, NBC’s bargaining power is limited. The network has drawn an average of 7.4 million viewers from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time in the current season, compared with 11.8 million for top-ranked network CBS, according to Nielsen.

Partly as a result, the broadcast-TV division of NBC’s parent, NBCUniversal, posted a first-quarter operating loss of $31 million, after a year-earlier profit of $14 million. The division includes the company’s television stations and the Spanish-language network Telemundo.

In a May 2 conference call, NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke described the broadcast network as a “big opportunity,” but noted that “there is a long way to go.”

Mr. Greenblatt, who joined NBC early last year after it was acquired by Comcast Corp.,

came from CBS’s Showtime. As head of programming at the premium cable channel, he made his name with edgy series like “Dexter,” whose protagonist is a serial killer, and “Weeds,” about a suburban mom turned drug dealer.

Though Mr. Greenblatt has installed his own people at NBC, including a new head of entertainment and a marketing chief, he inherited many of the network’s current prime-time shows. Though “Bent” and “Best Friends Forever” aren’t being renewed, “30 Rock” will continue for a final season, as will the quirky sitcom “Parks and Recreation.”

The shows he has added to the network’s schedule so far have had mixed responses. While “The Firm,” based on a John Grisham thriller, and the fantasy-crime series “Awake” were axed for poor ratings, Mr. Greenblatt is betting on the return of comedies “Up All Night,” with Christina Applegate, and “Whitney,” with Whitney Cummings.

The glimmers in the network’s prime-time schedule have been the Broadway-musical drama “Smash” and especially “The Voice,” a singing competition that debuted months after Mr. Greenblatt’s arrival. In its latest season, the show has averaged 15.9 million viewers, according to NBC, winning among viewers 18 to 49 years old every Tuesday night it has aired.

“The Voice,” which was recently renewed for the fall on Monday and Tuesday nights, “is going to be something that we can use to build on,” says NBCUniversal’s Mr. Burke.

Prime time isn’t the only weak spot in the network’s schedule. Recently, its morning show juggernaut “Today” has come under siege by “Good Morning America,” on Walt Disney Co.’s

ABC network, which beat it in terms of weekly viewers last month for the first time in 16 years.

“It’s not any big epiphany,” Mr. Greenblatt said about his new lineup, whose ratings are expected to get a boost from heavy promotions by the network during its telecasts of the London Summer Olympics. “We have to say to the audience, ‘You have to watch these shows here and now. You can’t ignore them or let them get lost in the clutter. You have to watch them now.’ ”

Write to Christopher S. Stewart at christopher.stewart@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared May 14, 2012, on page B4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: NBC Counts on Comedies.

Next year, you’ll likely pay more for your workplace health benefits, but you may have to read the fine print to figure out where the bite will come.

As companies head into open-enrollment season, when they let employees pick their plans for next year, many firms say they are reluctant to boost health-care premiums too sharply at a time when wages are stagnant. Instead, workers can expect to pay significantly more for such out-of-pocket items as deductibles, co-payments and other fees.

Employees’ charges next year are expected to jump 10.1% from 2008, to an average of $1,880, according to a recent projection by Hewitt Associates, a benefits consulting firm. By contrast, health-care premiums are expected to rise 7.8%, after posting double-digit percentage gains in four of the last five years. In 2008, out-of-pocket costs also increased 10.1%.

Workers are generally on the hook for various fees whenever they visit a doctor, fill a prescription or go to a hospital. These costs can vary depending on the type of health plan they choose. Hewitt says the average employee spends only about five to 15 minutes on open enrollment, and nearly two-thirds of workers select the same option they picked the previous year. So many people may not notice any new charges, which often aren’t as obvious as changes in premiums. Of course, they’ll probably figure it out once they start getting bills.

Lauralee Schiraga, a nurse from Brewster, Mass., says she was surprised when she was billed $250 last month for a breast biopsy that had been done to check on a suspicious mass. Around the same time, she got another $250 charge, this time for an endoscopy ordered by her doctor after she had digestive problems. She called her health insurer and was told the bills were her co-payments for the out-patient procedures.

“It never occurred to me for one second they would charge me $250 for an outpatient procedure,” says Ms. Schiraga, who says she could only afford to send $50 initially to each hospital. “I was beside myself.” Afterward, when she closely reviewed the benefits information from her employer, she found the co-payment listed in the middle of a page full of small text. Next year she plans to set aside money for such expenses.

Employers say another reason they are raising fees at a faster pace than premiums is fairness: Higher fees place a greater cost burden on workers with the highest expenses. Forcing employees to pay charges out-of-pocket also makes them more aware of how expensive medical services really are, some employers say.

“Folks don’t know how much things cost,” says Robert Meyer, vice president and co-owner of Johnstone Supply of Atlanta, a wholesaler of heating and cooling equipment. “Health care is one of the few things your average consumer doesn’t shop for.”

Starting last month, Johnstone sharply increased the maximum employees are required to pay out-of-pocket for self-injectable drugs, such as the rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel. It raised co-payments only slightly, and didn’t boost employee premiums. Johnstone also began for the first time requiring all of its workers to pay a deductible, which will be $2,500 for an individual. The company plans to offset the cost of deductibles through health-reimbursement arrangements, which are tax-advantaged accounts that allow employers to set aside money for workers’ health expenses.

Getty Images

Linda Hoffman and her granddaughter, Riley Bulnes, 4, pick up prescriptions from a Publix Supermarket in Miami, Florida.

Higher costs can prompt some people to forgo care that may be needed. A forthcoming survey by human-resources consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide, which tallied 2,487 American workers this spring, found that cost concerns had driven 17% of them to skip a recommended doctor visit. The same percentage had failed to fill a prescription or had skipped doses.

If you are choosing your workplace health plan soon, here are some things to watch.

Paying Your Share

For services such as doctor visits, hospital stays, outpatient procedures and imaging scans, keep an eye out for higher co-payments. These can kick in whether you are in a traditional preferred provider organization plan, which offers more coverage for care provided by preferred doctors, or a health-maintenance organization plan, which traditionally requires participants to use approved physicians for nearly all services.

Also be alert for shifts from flat co-pays to co-insurance charges, which typically require you to pay a percentage of the total cost of a service and often take far more out of your wallet.

Briggs & Stratton Corp.,

a Milwaukee-based maker of small engines and lawn mowers, has done away with most co-payments in its main plans — a standard preferred-provider organization and a high-deductible option. In the standard PPO, workers pay 20% for all medical services with providers in the plan’s network, including doctor visits. That comes with an in-network, out-of-pocket annual maximum of $5,500 for an individual and $11,000 for a family. “There’s a much better case for shopping around” among medical providers if employees are paying a percentage of the cost of care, rather than a flat co-pay, says R. Craig Reynolds, the corporate director of employee benefits.

Fees can be structured in different, and sometimes confusing, ways. Some employers’ plans may demand a co-payment for each day you’re in the hospital, while other plans levy a fee for each stay. Ken Goulet, president of WellPoint Inc.’s

commercial business unit, warns that in certain employer plans, a hospital admission may require a co-payment, and then separate co-insurance charges for services during the hospital stay. “Don’t just think, ‘Wow, a $200 co-pay, this is great,’” he says. “It may not just be a co-pay.”

Some employers also are raising the maximum workers are responsible for paying in out-of-pocket costs each year. One tricky twist is for the annual deductible not to count toward that cap, sharply increasing the total you could spend.

Taking Your Medicine

Keep a close eye on your medications. Most employees by now are accustomed to paying less for generics than for brand-name drugs. But if your employer tweaks the design of the drug benefit, the changes may have a substantial impact on your costs, or even knock your drug off the approved list altogether. In a recent employer survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust, 41% of those offering health benefits said they were very or somewhat likely to increase workers’ drug expenses in the next year.

Drugs injected in a doctor’s office, which are often high-priced medications for such diseases as cancer, are one area to watch. Some plans that have lumped these in with the co-pay for physician visits may now charge separately for the medicine.

Eric Smith, a middle-school technology teacher in Dalton, Ga., who gets his health benefits through a state agency, has to pick a new HMO this fall because his plan will no longer be offered next year. He expects his premiums to go up by about $12 a month. But his drug costs will rise much more sharply, by more than $50 a month, mainly because of two brand-name medicines he takes that aren’t on the state’s preferred list; he says cheaper alternatives didn’t work as well. “That just negated my raise this year,” he says.

Filling Your Needs

Check for coverage of any care you know you will need; don’t assume it is included. Some employers looking to limit costs may trim certain benefits, though this isn’t expected to be widespread. Consultants say they’ve seen some clients cut back in areas including physical therapy and speech therapy. You should watch for limits on equipment such as hearing aids and prosthetics.

Once you’ve done your due diligence on the coverage options, decide what’s best for you. You may opt for a plan with more out-of-pocket charges and a lower premium. At the most extreme, there are high-deductible plans paired with health-savings accounts, a model being pushed by many employers but slow to catch on with workers. The key is to understand the real costs and coverage you get with each of the plan options.

McDonald’s Corp.,

for instance, offers its 18,000 eligible U.S. employees three different PPOs. The most popular is the one with the highest premiums, but no deductible and a flat co-pay for doctor visits. The plan with the lowest premium comes with a $1,000 deductible for a single employee and a company-funded health-reimbursement arrangement. In the middle is a plan with a $250 deductible and a 20% co-insurance charge for in-network doctor visits. McDonald’s offers online tools to help employees choose. Says Bob Wittcoff, the company’s senior director of global benefits: “One size does not fit all.”

Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1

By IAN SHERR

Apple Inc.

shares reached a new milestone Wednesday, trading above $300 for the first time, as the electronics giant prepares to report quarterly results and preview a new operating system next week.

Shares of the Cupertino, Calif., company were at $300.14 on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 4 p.m. trading Wednesday, up $1.60 from Tuesday. The stock is up 43% for the year and 30 times its price seven years ago, on a split-adjusted basis.

Apple Wednesday invited reporters to its headquarters on Oct. 20, when it will unveil an update to the operating system that powers its Macintosh computers. The company plans to post its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Monday.

Analysts expect the company to report sales of nearly $19 billion and earnings of $4.05 a share, excluding items, in the September-ended quarter. A year earlier, it had quarterly revenue of $9.87 billion and a profit of $1.82 a share.

The quarter’s results will be the second to include sales of the iPad tablet, which the company released in April. Apple sold more than three million of the devices in its first quarter of availability, but rivals are preparing competing devices for the holiday season and beyond.

The popularity of Apple’s iPhone 4 also will be examined Monday. Some analysts expect sales of the device to exceed 11 million units despite complaints that a new antenna design disrupted cellular reception. Apple apologized for the misstep, and offered free cases to customers until Sept. 30.

Apple’s success over the past decade has been built on gadgets that helped to redefine how users enjoy media and communicate with each other, first with the iPod music player in the early 2000s, then with the iPhone and now with the iPad.

For the fiscal year ended in 2003, Apple reported earnings of $1.7 billion on sales of $6.2 billion. On Monday, Apple is expected to report earnings for its latest fiscal year of $13.4 billion on sales of $63.7 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Shares in Apple were below $10 as recently as December 2003, on a split-adjusted basis, accounting for the company’s 2-for-1 stock split in 2005. Since 2003, the stock has been on a rapid ascent, especially over the past year. The stock first crossed $200 a year ago and was below $200 as recently as February.

The company’s surging share price has made Apple the second-most valuable company in the U.S., with a market value of roughly $275 billion, second only to ExxonMobil Corp.

By STEPHEN MILLER

Art Bartlett wasn’t the first to apply to home sales a franchise model more often associated with selling hamburgers, but he was the most successful.

As co-founder of Century 21 Real Estate Corp., Mr. Bartlett, who died Dec. 31 at age 76, sought to make his company “the McDonald’s of real estate.”

Los Angeles Times

Art Bartlett, who co-founded real-estate company Century 21.

By 1979, when Mr. Bartlett sold his interest in the company, Century 21 had grown to more than 7,000 offices in 50 states and Canada. Today the company’s 120,000 gold-jacketed staff sell homes in 67 countries.

“His concept was imitated by everybody, and it became spectacular,” says Dave Liniger, chairman of RE/Max International Inc., another big real-estate franchisor.

The son of a Glens Falls, N.Y., truck driver, Mr. Bartlett moved to Long Beach, Calif., in the 1940s to care for a sick relative. After working as a salesman for Campbell Soup Co., he took up real estate. He founded his own agency, then formed Comps Inc., an Orange, Calif.-based firm that was one of the earliest to use computers to track comparable home sales.

In 1971, he teamed with a former employee, Marsh Fisher, to form Century 21. Others had tried real-estate sales franchising, including Red Carpet Corp., another California-based company founded in 1966. But Century 21 became franchising on steroids, growing to 2,600 offices within five years of its founding.

Rather than build up a network from scratch, Mr. Bartlett signed up thousands of independent real-estate brokers across the nation in a process that came to be known as “conversion franchising.” To spur growth, he sold regional licenses, and the licensees sold individual franchises. At one point in the mid-1970s, Century 21 was opening over 100 new offices per month.

In exchange for an annual fee and a percentage of sales, Century 21 offered its brokers a range of services from training to purchasing, a referral network, and national advertising, an innovation in residential real estate.

“You can’t overstate the challenge of getting this off the ground,” says Matt Shay, president of the International Franchise Association in Washington. “We’ve lost a true pioneer. He was up there with Ray Kroc of McDonald’s and Kemmons Wilson of Holiday Inn.”

Century 21 went public in 1978, then was acquired by Trans World Corp. in 1979 in a stock and cash deal valued at $89 million. Mr. Bartlett sold his shares and retired, but found retirement uncomfortable.

“When you’re on a fast track of building a company you can’t just turn it off and slow down,” Mr. Bartlett told a reporter in 1982. He tried to apply his franchising expertise at Mr. Build, a home-remodeling chain he hoped to take national. But Mr. Build stalled, and Mr. Bartlett turned to real-estate investments.

Mr. Bartlett lived in an exclusive section of Orange County, then built what his family calls his “dream home” overlooking San Diego Bay. He collected classic cars, from Packards and Fords of the 1930s to Corvettes and Thunderbirds of the 1950s.

Write to Stephen Miller at stephen.miller@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4