This is a particularly important factor when looking at the workers who make up the city’s unionized construction workforce. According to a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute, the majority of the city’s unionized construction workers were Black and Hispanic individuals.
NY Daily News
May 13, 2022
Economic Policy Institute’s senior economist Elise Gould explained, “Workers continue to quit and get hired at fast rates in today’s economy. This ‘churn’ is a positive sign of a strengthening labor market where workers can quit, search, and obtain new opportunities.”
PennLive
May 13, 2022
If that time has now come in the UK, that time should have come years ago in the United States. Back in 1989, the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute reported last August, CEOs at the top 350 publicly traded U.S. corporations were realizing an average 61 times typical worker compensation. By 2020 that pay gap had reached 351 times. In one recent year, the Institute for Policy Studies notes, America’s 50 highest-paid execs all made over 1,000 times their typical worker pay.
Inequality.org
May 13, 2022
They have made similar arguments against increases in the minimum wage for generations. Advocates for overtime reform counter by highlighting the link between such wage issues and the widening gap between the rich and low-income workers in the country. The Economic Policy Institute cites weakened labor standards, including “eroded overtime protections,” as a factor in the worsening wage inequality over the last four decades. While worker productivity has sharply increased during that time, most of the rewards have gone to executives and corporate shareholders, even as median wages stagnated.
Fast Company
May 13, 2022
“Black unemployment has been trending down pretty steadily over the last six months or so, and it’s now down below 6% for the first time in this recovery,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said.
“That’s certainly a positive sign, but it’s important to remember that it’s significantly higher than any other group,” she added.
CNBC
May 13, 2022
The economy was adding about 200,000 jobs every month up to the lockdowns of 2020, meaning there are another 6.3 million jobs that would’ve been created had the pandemic not happened, Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a tweet. If job growth continues at its current rate, however, those payrolls could be recouped by the end of 2022, she added.
Business Insider
May 13, 2022
April’s growth is positive — but it’s “not yet mission accomplished,” noted Economic Policy Institute President Heidi Shierholz. There’s a “huge hole” in the labor market, but “that gap is closing rapidly,” she said.
“No matter how you look at it,” added Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould, “nominal wage growth is moderating (and decidedly not accelerating).” “We can keep labor markets tight without feeding inflation,” she continued.
The Week
May 13, 2022
Despite that earnings gap, college enrollment has fallen in the last two years. Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, points to what she called a sudden, pandemic-induced recession, as one of the reasons for the drop in enrollment.
While recessions can be good times for people to go back to school, get degrees and find better jobs, COVID-19 flipped that on its head.
Gould also said the pandemic added disproportionate roadblocks for Black, Hispanic and lower-income individuals who may not have been able to enroll or stay in college.
“You need to have money, you need to have time, you need to have other resources to be able to make those kinds of investments,” Gould said. “And that’s just not accessible to many people across the country.”
Wisconsin Public Radio
May 13, 2022
The world hasn’t sat still since February 2020. The working-age population grew during the pandemic—with immigrants and new graduates, says Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute.
“We’re about 3.5 million potential jobs short,” said Gould.
She says if the economy keeps up the current pace of job creation, “I think it’s absolutely realistic for us to get there by the end of this year.”
NPR Marketplace
May 13, 2022
Inflation is high and so are corporate profits. NPR’s A Martinez talks to Josh Bivens of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, about whether corporations are benefiting from rising prices.
NPR Morning Edition
May 13, 2022