AUGUST 2003

Labor market left behind
Although the recent recession was officially declared over as of November 2001, on Labor Day 2003 the job market will remain in a rut. Unemployment has climbed, the nation’s payrolls reveal the worst hiring slump since the Great Depression, and wages have been growing more slowly and even falling in real terms for some workers. How could it be that the nation’s economy is supposedly in recovery yet the job market is much weaker now than when the recession ended? The answer to this question and others can be found in EPI’s Labor Day Briefing Paper, Labor Market Left Behind, co-authored by EPI economist Jared Bernstein and EPI President Larry Mishel.

How unions help all workers
Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and nonunionized workers. Unions play a pivotal role in securing and enforcing labor protections such as overtime compensation, family and medical leave, and health and safety regulations. EPI President Larry Mishel’s Briefing Paper, How Unions Help All Workers, examines the effect of unions on wages, fringe benefits, total compensation, pay inequality, and workplace protections.

EPI to launch JobWatch
On Friday September 5 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases August labor market data, EPI will post its first installment of JobWatch, a new initiative and web feature designed to clearly track current trends in the U.S. labor market, offering up-to-date analysis of national and state data. The August BLS data will represent the first opportunity to compare the Bush Administration's claims for job creation resulting from the "Jobs and Growth Plan" against actual jobs growth. Go to www.JobWatch.org on September 5th for the analysis. Background material regarding the administration's promises for labor market growth can be found in the EPI publication Grading the Jobs and Growth Plan.

Dip in jobless rate, yet hiring slump persists
On August 1, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate had dropped to 6.2%; however, payrolls continue to decline. In fact, since the official end of the recession in November 2001, payrolls have contracted by 1.2 million in the private sector. This month’s Jobs Picture, which can be accessed through the EPI Web site, looks at the current recession and jobless recovery period in the context of other post-World War II recession periods. Look for the next Jobs Picture online on Friday, September 5.

A conversation on school vouchers
EPI education researcher Anne Heald led a discussion on the research regarding school vouchers. The June 12 conference call brought together leading education researchers and journalists to examine the myth that vouchers improve educational opportunities for urban students. In fact, recent analyses show that school voucher programs can actually be detrimental to certain student groups. A transcript of the conversation can be found in the News Room on the EPI Web site.

Op-ed pieces available online
In recently published op-eds, EPI fellow Jeff Faux wrote on how NAFTA has failed Mexico, EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey detailed how the new FLSA regulations will result in a loss of overtime pay for eight million workers, and EPI research associate Lonnie Golden examined how some work-flexibility bills do workers more harm than good. EPI economists’ op-eds can be accessed through the Viewpoints section of the EPI Web site.

• On August 12, the day before President Bush was scheduled to meet with his economic team, EPI hosted a news conference call that brought together several prominent economists—including two Nobel Prize winners—and over 60 journalists for a discussion of the state of the economy under the Bush Administration. The journalists represented major national and regional print media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and The Economist. A number of national and international broadcast news services were also represented, including ABC News, CNNfn, CBS Marketwatch, Bloomberg Radio, Pacifica Radio, and BBC News online.
  
  
• In August, The Wall Street Journal and The San Francisco Chronicle quoted EPI President Larry Mishel on the lack of job growth in the post-recession expansion period.
  
  
• EPI economist Christian Weller presented testimony before a joint hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives on July 15 about the Bush Administration's proposal to change funding rules for pension plans.
  
  
• "We tried to understand how it [the Department of Labor] could conclude that only 644,000 employees would lose their right to overtime pay....So we analyzed the changes ourselves....Our conclusions are very different from those of the Department. We estimate that...over 8 million workers will lose the right to overtime pay." This finding was part of EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey’s testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations regarding the effect of the Bush Administration’s radical changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  
  
• An opinion piece by EPI economist Christian Weller that examined how Bush Administration proposals will undermine retirement security for millions of workers was published in The Detroit News on August 17.

The mission of the Economic Policy Institute is to provide high-quality research and education in order to promote a prosperous, fair, and sustainable economy. The Institute stresses real world analysis and a concern for the living standards of working people, and it makes its findings accessible to the general public, the media, and policy makers.

Copyright ©2003 Economic Policy Institute. All rights reserved.