Business

  According to the most recent numbers, about seven percent of Washingtonians are currently unemployed and seeking work. But more companies are requiring online applications, and hitting the pavement and handing out resumes might become a thing of the past. When your first impression is a PDF how can you stand out from the rest?

David Hyde gets the answer from Dr. Tracy Wilen-Daugenti. She’s a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Media X program and a former Silicon Valley executive. She has held leadership positions at Apple, HP, Cisco Systems and the Apollo Group, and she’s the author of a number of books on business.

 In 2011, Seattle became the third city in the nation to mandate paid sick leave for employees. But the specifics of the law have been very confusing for workers and their employers. Not surprisingly, sick leave isn’t the only employee rights law that causes confusion. In many industries, long hours and sporadic schedules can make employee protection laws pretty murky. Employment lawyer Lindsay Halm answers questions from listeners and talks to David Hyde about the rights of Washington state workers.

For more information, please visit Washington Labor & Industries.

Two Seattle television news stations, KING and KONG, are being bought by the Virginia-based Gannett Company, which currently owns USA Today and dozens of local news stations across the country. What will this mean for KING5’s news reporting? And what does this corporate power shift say about the national trends in local news media? David Hyde talks to Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institude about Gannett’s news reporting reputation.

Here to tell us more about KING TV’s new parent company is Rick Edmonds. He’s a media business analyst for the Poynter Institue, which is a Florida-based journalism school.

Last night workers at dozens of Seattle fast food locations began a one-day strike over low wages. It’s the first in Seattle, but walkouts by fast food employees have been happening over the past several months in cities including New York and St. Louis. Alfonso Arellano, who works at the University District Taco Del Mar, tells KUOW’s Ross Reynolds his story.

Cab drivers spoke out against new app-based car services during a Seattle City Council meeting Thursday. Companies such as Uber, SideCar and Lyft offer smartphone apps that allow users to book a ride by the touch of a button. Those business operations are mostly unregulated, and their presence in Seattle has led to questions about whether the companies are legal.

 In the past decade, blue collar jobs have diminished. But in the coming decade, that tide is expected to change. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an additional 2.7 million new blue collar jobs such as home health care aides and rebar and iron maintenance workers by 2020. Ross Reynolds talks with Tim Sweeney and Dan Jacoby about the future of blue collar work and education. 

A random drawing: That’s how the Washington State Liquor Control Board proposes choosing applicants for marijuana retail licenses. And it’s drawing major criticism from existing medical marijuana providers.

A lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures has sparked a fierce debate over whether the US should ban all unpaid internships. Eric Glatt is the plaintiff in the case. He interned at Fox for free, but now he says that his unpaid internship was illegal and that every unpaid internship should be banned.

Steve Cohen is also a former unpaid intern, and he disagrees. Cohen says interns cost time and money and paying them misses the point. Glatt and Cohen debate the issue, and David Hyde takes calls from listeners.

The job market has been slowly recovering in the United States. But for African-Americans, the unemployment rate remains high at 13 percent — nearly double the national average.

Social scientists say racism continues to be one factor. But now researchers have uncovered another important obstacle to employment:  favoritism. Rutgers Business School professor Nancy Ditomaso talks about it with David Hyde.