The state’s rising unemployment means an estimated 41,000 people who don’t have a job will qualify for 13 weeks of additional benefits, Employment Security Commissioner Sylvia Mundy announced Friday. Workers can begin applying for the extended benefits on Jan. 7. Mundy said the department will send application packets to potentially eligible workers Wednesday. Officials are asking unemployed workers to mail those application packets to Olympia rather than call the agency’s telecenters. After the applications are received, the department will notify workers if they qualify and how much they’ll get. The state qualifies for extended benefits under federal law because its jobless rate has averaged 6.6 percent over the past three months.
Workers earning minimum wage in Washington state will make $6.90 an hour starting Jan. 1. That’s an 18-cent raise over the current minimum of $6.72. The new wage applies to workers 16 and older in both agricultural and nonagricultural jobs.
Seattle’s Pacific Market International has purchased the Aladdin and Stanley lines of thermos bottles from Aladdin Industries Inc. of Nashville, Tenn. It will manufacture them overseas. Pacific Market International will use the brands to build its product line, most of which is manufactured under a private label for companies such as Nike, Eddie Bauer, Starbucks and L.L. Bean, company chief executive and president Rob Harris said Thursday.
Microsoft said Friday it needs more time to gather and produce evidence demanded by the nine states that have not yet settled with the software giant in its antitrust case. The company also asked U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to define the scope of penalties the company might face for breaking antitrust law, a request that the judge denied earlier this year. The states have called for penalties that are far stronger than the company’s settlement with the federal government.
Even as major carriers lose millions of dollars every day, the airline industry is beginning to exhibit signs of a post-Sept. 11 recovery in terms of passenger demand and average domestic ticket prices. The cost of flying 1,000 miles within the United States dropped 16 percent in November to $123.68, the ninth consecutive month in which airfares dropped compared to a year ago, the latest industry data shows. For passengers flying coach, the cost averaged $111.89, and for those flying in business class it was $215.43, according to the Air Transportation Association.
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