Media clips
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There are an estimated 9.5 million Americans who are unemployed, but the Economic Policy Institute determined that there are another 10.4 million workers who continue to be financially hurt by the unemployment downturn as of June.
The Sun August 20, 2021 -
In 2020, COVID-19 put a huge dent in household incomes, with millions of people losing their jobs. Unemployment hit low-wage workers the hardest, with 80% of job losses in 2020 coming from workers in the bottom 25% of wage distribution, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Low-wage workers who had a lower tax liability before the pandemic hit may have seen their federal income tax bill completely wiped out when their income dropped.
Money August 20, 2021 -
That’s been an ongoing issue with minimal resolution in sight, said Ron Hira, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute. He said while the report is “vital and consistent” with his longtime research, it just scratches the surface of the issues involving temporary and contracted workers in tech.
“This report is important because it sheds light on the actual employment situation for most technology workers, which is much worse than what most people, including reporters and policymakers, believe to be the case,” Hira said. “There’s a large gap between what people’s impression of the technology labor market versus its true state.”
Hira also disputed the misperception that there’s a shortage of technology workers, and as a result, those workers have their pick of jobs, can demand high wages and luxurious working conditions.
“The (tech) companies themselves have played an aggressive role in creating the false version of the technology labor market,” Hira said. “It is so difficult to break through with the truth because the misperception of widespread labor shortages has become a truism for most people.”
USA Today August 20, 2021 -
Last year, while the US was in a pandemic recession and millions of people were out of work, CEOs of the country’s biggest public companies saw their compensation increase $24 million on average. How did that happen? It’s all about the stock market. That’s Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow and former president of the Economic Policy Institute.
BYU Radio August 20, 2021 -
Un análisis del Economic Policy Institute (Instituto de Política Económica) ratifica la tesis de Xiuhtecutli al destacar que los trabajadores agrícolas, considerados “esenciales” en medio de la pandemia para sostener las cadenas de suministro de alimentos, “no han sido recompensados adecuadamente” pues ganaban 14,62 dólares por hora en promedio en 2020, mucho menos que algunos de los “peor pagados” del país.
The San Diego Union-Tribune August 20, 2021 -
Harris spent years at the Labor Department before rising to deputy labor secretary in 2009. His work carrying out the Obama administration’s policies on workplace safety, wage theft and other labor issues drew plenty of praise from the left. The Economic Policy Institute wrote regarding Harris’s breadth of experience that it was “unlikely that anyone so knowledgeable will ever serve” at the agency again.
Huffpost August 20, 2021 -
In the mid-twentieth century, one in three US workers were union members. By 2020, it was down to about one in ten. US employers spend almost $340 million (US) every year hiring “union avoidance advisers,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
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And, according to the Economic Policy Institute, strong unions set industry standards for wages and benefits that help all workers, often by pushing non-union employers to raise wages to stay competitive. Union effects also extend beyond the labour market. One US study found health care facilities with registered-nurses unions have better patient outcomes.
The Walrus August 20, 2021 -
For the first time in years, talk of inflation fears has taken center stage in mainstream economic discourse. Inflation, an economic measure for increased prices in goods and services, accelerated noticeably in recent months, climbing 5.4 percent in July over the previous year. This spurred calls for the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, to “cool off” the economy by raising interest rates. But doing so could cause a lot of collateral damage by stalling the still-nascent economic recovery.
“Cooling off” the economy sounds prudent, innocuous even. Yet, in practice, this monetary policy maneuver means that the Fed increases borrowing costs for businesses and pulls back on helping jobless Americans find work. So it’s worth breaking down this year’s inflation data in granular detail, then asking whether the price increases we’ve seen merit the very tough medicine — slower growth and higher unemployment — that would result from the stricter monetary policy that some financial commentators now recommend.
The ultimate answer most likely depends on how lasting this inflation acceleration will be, which, in turn, depends on how widespread the price growth American consumers have experienced becomes.
So far, the inflationary burst of 2021 has been overwhelmingly driven by a narrow group of sectors that were deeply affected by the shock of Covid-19 and last year’s accompanying shutdowns. In July, some of these sectors (used cars in particular) experienced a big deceleration in inflation, bolstering the argument — led by the Fed chair, Jerome Powell — that the inflationary surge might be “transitory,” or fade quickly on its own.
That would be good news for the economy and job-seekers: If inflation proves to be transitory then it’s likely that the Fed doesn’t need to reel back as much of its economic support out of fears of “overheating” the economy and sparking long-lasting inflation.
New York Times August 20, 2021 -
The decision was “seemingly rooted in simple-minded partisanship that demanded a Republican president replace a Democratic appointee as Fed chair,” Josh Bivens, research director at the typically liberal Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a statement at the time. “This decision breaks a longstanding norm of not elevating partisanship over competence when picking Fed chairs.”
Mr. Bivens, in an email last week, said that the norm “is pretty broken,” but that the decision to replace a Fed chair should still come down to whether the incumbent had done a good job. There’s a strong case for keeping Mr. Powell based on his monetary policymaking at a moment of fierce debate over the Fed’s policy direction, he thinks.
New York Times August 20, 2021 -
Data released by the economic policy institute clearly shows that since 1971, the United States’ net productivity growth stopped causing hourly wages to grow as well.
Up until that point, the lines representing the two metrics followed each other so closely that they nearly perfectly overlap.
After the dollar was detached from the gold standard, productivity more than doubled, but it didn’t reflect on wages.
Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance) August 20, 2021