Measuring employment since the recovery
There are two primary measures of U.S. employment: the payroll survey and the household survey. Of the two, the payroll survey is a much more accurate and reliable measure of employment in the United States. Despite this, some analysts continue to use the household survey to measure employment, resulting in misleading coverage of employment trends. Measuring Employment Since the Recovery, a Briefing Paper by EPI economist Elise Gould, outlines the differences between the household and payroll surveys and explains why the payroll survey is the preferred measure of employment growth.

Latest EPI Journal is now available
The Winter 2004 edition of the EPI Journal addresses NAFTA's contribution to U.S. job losses and looks back at the 2003 economy. Also included in the Journal are updates on overtime legislation, education issues, and EPI's JobWatch.org initiative to track the lack of U.S. job growth. Visit epinet.org to view an electronic version of the Journal.

JobWatch.org tracks the Bush Administration's failure to meet job growth projections for 2003
The December 2003 job numbers provided a benchmark for evaluating President Bush's promise that his tax cut package would generate 510,000 new jobs by the end of 2003, in addition to the 1,326,000 jobs that an economy in recovery would naturally generate, for a total job creation projection of 1,836,000. The gain of only 1,000 jobs in December put the total number of jobs created between July and December 2003 well below the 510,000 jobs that President Bush promised over and above the baseline for those six months and was significantly less than the total of 1,836,000 jobs promised with the baseline included. Visit JobWatch.org for more information about how the Bush Administration's projections have fallen far short of actual job growth.

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• EPI President Lawrence Mishel moderated a December 11 briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by EPI and Congressman George Miller on the subject of teacher quality. Among the presenters was EPI research associate Jennifer King Rice, who discussed findings from her EPI education report Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes.
  
• EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey testified at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on December 11 regarding the Bush Administration's proposed changes to overtime regulations. The hearing included firsthand testimony from workers who depend on overtime pay to meet major expenses such as college tuition and mortgage payments.
  
• EPI economist Max Sawicky's op-ed on the tax remedies needed to pull the United States out of its fiscal crisis appeared in the Charlotte Observer on December 17, 2003.
  
• An op-ed piece by EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey and EPI economist Jared Bernstein describing how the Bush Administration ignored a consensus between Republicans and Democrats in Congress to put aside proposed changes in the rules governing overtime pay appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal on December 5, 2003.
  
• On January 11, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carried an op-ed by EPI President Lawrence Mishel refuting the idea that the economy has turned the corner for the better.

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 ©2004 Economic Policy Institute. All rights reserved.

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