“The big story is about the final benchmark revisions. With the downward revisions to prior data, the labor market added only 181,000 jobs total in 2025, just 15,000 per month on average,” noted Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould.
iHeartRadio
February 17, 2026
The prime-age employment-to-population ratio, which measures the percentage of 25-to-54 year olds who are currently employed, reached 80.9% in January, matching its highest level since 2001.
“It’s a little puzzling because of other labor market weakness,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Perhaps there’s a demographic angle because young adults are facing much higher unemployment.”
S&P Global
February 17, 2026
The loss of manufacturing jobs coincides with the softening in the labor market, said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.
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Another challenge the industry is facing right now: Trump’s tariffs. According to Bivens, tariffs are currently doing more damage than helping the sector. Tariffs make imports expensive, which also makes manufacturing outputs expensive, making it harder for firms to compete in global markets. Countries can also retaliate and add their own tariffs on their goods.
But Bivens points out tariffs can be beneficial in some cases; however, what he’s seeing from this administration doesn’t show evidence of a larger plan, and tariff decisions tend to be erratic.
Hearst TV
February 17, 2026
On the surface, Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz said Wednesday’s report was good.
“It was one of the surveys that is showing, okay, we are still humming along,” Shierholz said.
But it was different that what we’ve been seeing lately, she said. In 2025, the economy only added about 15,000 jobs a month, on average.
“So what we saw in January was a big change,” Shierholz said. “It could signify that things are strengthening, or it could be volatility in the data. We are really in a wait and see moment.”
Marketplace
February 17, 2026
Features interview with Daniel Costa on economic impact of mass deportations.
Noticias Nevada (Univision)
February 17, 2026
The Archbridge report doesn’t correlate the economic freedom of the child care market with costs across states. But in 2023, Move.org published a report drawing on data from the Economic Policy Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau that ranked states by cost and percentage of average income consumed by child care.
Reason Magazine
February 17, 2026
In 2024, five years after Dayton and Walker had left office, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute found that job growth in Minnesota grew 11% compared to 7.9% in Wisconsin. Minnesota’s wages increased by 9.7% compared to 6.4% in Wisconsin. Household income in the Gopher State jumped 8.5%, compared to 6.4% in the Badger State.
And while union membership in Minnesota fell by 0.4%, it had dropped by 15.2% in Wisconsin.
Capital Times
February 17, 2026
Rates of people working multiple jobs have been on the rise, including for workers ages 25 to 54, according to Elise Gould, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But since less work experiencein a sluggish labor market could mean fewer opportunities to break into the workforce, it feels like a particularly disastrous time to start working life. Landing that one “first job” and working up from there feels like a myth, given the endless economic chaos of the last few years.
During the start of the pandemic, young workers were disproportionately hurt by unemployment and job loss. As employers began hiring again, they had to work harder to attract and retain workers. Gould notes that, in that moment, workers had more leverage. But now, the hiring rate is depressed again, which could hurt young people more than others.
Graduating into a weaker economy can set you back, Gould explained, depending on how long this weakness lasts. Joining the workforce during an economic downturn can negatively impact health, income, and career advancement. While Gould noted this wouldn’t necessarily set you back for your lifetime in terms of career, it could be harder. One notable example, of course, is elder millennials, who graduated into the Great Recession.
Everything is Political
February 17, 2026
Today, advocacy groups like the Economic Policy Institute and The Child Labor Coalition and journalists who include Alice Driver and Hannah Dreier have been documenting the ongoing, simultaneous rise in child labour law violations. There has been a decrease in labour law protections — not just in meatpacking and agriculture, but in industries throughout the U.S.
The Conversation
February 17, 2026
A 2022 Economic Policy Institute study showed that when unionized teachers bargain for higher…[paywall].
Toledo Blade
February 17, 2026