And the switch cannot be more dramatic: According to the Pew Research Center, over two-thirds of all higher education students are now taking out loans to meet the rising cost of tuition. Education Data found that the average loan amount has tripled since 1993, to over $30,000. And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the Black and white wage gap is worsening.
Bay State Banner
April 13, 2022
The additions brought total jobs to within 1% of pre-pandemic numbers, Economic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Elise Gould pointed out. There were 5.92 million jobless workers in March, compared to 5.717 million in February 2020, BLS data showed.
People’s World
April 13, 2022
As strong as the jobs numbers have been, it’s worth remembering that the economy is still millions of jobs short of where it was projected to be in the absence of the pandemic. At the current rate of growth, the job market will return to pre-pandemic levels this year, as soon as summer. “We are on pace to recover nearly EIGHT YEARS faster than we recovered from the Great Recession,” Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute tweeted, while crediting the rapid recovery to the fiscal policy choices made by Congress.
The Fiscal Times
April 13, 2022
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
April 13, 2022
Even before the pandemic, the cost of child care in New York had soared: The average cost of child care is $15,394, more than both the cost of in-state college tuition and average rent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The 19th
April 13, 2022
“This is a moment when we know that workers’ expectations are rising,” Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “They were told from day one of the pandemic that they were essential, but they weren’t always treated that way.”
The Washington Post
April 13, 2022
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute took umbrage with executive pay in a report last August. “Corporate boards running America’s largest public firms are giving top executives outsize compensation packages that have grown much faster than the stock market and the pay of typical workers, college graduates, and even the top 0.1%,” the report said.
The Street
April 13, 2022
Worker advocates such as Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute disagree. She testified against the Washington measure in February while it was moving through the state Senate, arguing that it did not go far enough and that drivers need the full benefits of employee status and union-organizing rights.
Bloomberg Law
April 13, 2022
Other states have restricted the bonuses to law enforcement. Most haven’t paid pandemic bonuses to state employees, said Dave Kamper, a senior state policy coordinator who has been tracking the federal coronavirus money for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “In some ways the state and local fiscal relief funds created a problem by having so many possible uses,” Kamper said. “It’s a good problem, but usually when the federal government sends money to a state, it’s very specific.”
Sacramento Bee
April 13, 2022
Heidi Sheirholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, explained in a Twitter thread that the U.S. economy is currently “on pace to recover nearly eight years faster” from the high unemployment rates created by the COVID-19 pandemic than it did from the Great Recession. This is in part due to Congress acting to provide COVID-19 relief, including the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan, Shierholz said.
Verify This
April 13, 2022