OCTOBER 2003

JobWatch.org
JobWatch.org, EPI's Web site for monitoring the performance of the Bush Administration's tax cuts in generating jobs, continues to expand. JobWatch is now updated twice a month when the national and state job data are released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Visit www.JobWatch.org for the latest information and to sign up for the twice monthly e-mail bulletins.

Welfare Issue Guide
For a better understanding of welfare issues and the pending Temporary Assistance for Needy Families reauthorization, check out EPI's Welfare Issue Guide, a downloadable online resource that includes data, fact sheets, and links to other sources of information on this issue.

Op-eds online
EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey's opinion piece on the urgent need to reauthorize and expand emergency unemployment benefits appeared in The Miami Herald on October 26. EPI policy analyst Jeff Chapman's letter to the editor about the U.S. Census Bureau's poverty study and what it reveals about the state of working families was published in The New York Times in October. Visit the Viewpoints section of www.epinet.org to read recent opinion pieces by EPI researchers.

• As the jobless recovery drags on, wages are taking a hit. In October, EPI economists were quoted on the subject of the jobless recovery in several publications, including The New York Times, Business Week, and The Miami Herald.

• Last month, EPI research was featured in stories in The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune on trade-related issues such as steel tariffs, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

• EPI research on the proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act was cited in The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and The New York Law Journal, among other publications in October.

• Matthew Miller, author of The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love, discussed his book at a seminar on September 25 held at the Economic Policy Institute.

• EPI economist Josh Bivens and EPI International Policy Coordinator Tony Avirgan participated in the Globalization and Labor Markets in Latin America conference in Brazil on October 20-21.

• On October 17, the Economic Policy Institute, the National Employment Law Project, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities briefed Senate and House staff on the needs of the unemployed. EPI Research Director Lee Price and EPI economist Sylvia Allegretto discussed the prospects of job seekers and the long-term unemployed in the current labor market, and argued for an extension and expansion of unemployment insurance benefits.

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.

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