National Education Corp. in Irvine Reports 90% Drop in 1992 Profit

Buffeted by a continuing shortfall in the revenue of its job training subsidiary, National Education Corp. on Friday said its profit for 1992 plunged 90% from the previous year.

The Irvine company, which publishes school workbooks, operates vocational schools and trains people on the job, reported earnings of $515,000, or 2 cents a share, for the year. That compared to a profit of $5.4 million, or 18 cents a share, for 1991. Annual revenue decreased to $375 million from $385.4 million.

For the fourth quarter, National Education posted a loss of $687,000, contrasted with a profit of $9 million for the same period a year earlier. Three-month revenue came to $102 million, down from $111 million.

One of the company’s four units, National Education Training Group in Naperville, Ill., has been hit particularly hard by the recession as many of its Fortune 500 clients have trimmed both staff and on-the-job training.

“Our main customers have been adversely affected by economic conditions,” said Keith Ogata, National Education’s chief financial officer.

One of the subsidiary’s specialties has been training employees on mainframe information systems, a market that has diminished as companies move to decentralized networks of personal computers, Ogata said.

In Friday’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange, National Education closed at $6 a share, unchanged.