“There is, however, a great deal of volatility in the weekly data,” tweeted Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“It is important not to put too much weight on one week,” she continued. “Claims have been steadily coming down in recent months as the labor market strengthens, and I expect that to continue.”
The Hill
June 17, 2021
“We are certainly in the right place to have a speedy and quick reopening and recovery,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
…
“Fiscal spending has been key to being able to speed up this recovery,” said Gould. “So, by my calculations, if we continue to go on the track that we’ve been going month after month, we’ll see that we will actually be able to get down to 3.5% unemployment by the end of 2022.”
According to Gould, the continued stimulus packages from Congress have been game-changers as they have provided continuous relief to people and businesses, rather than temporary relief from a one-time payment.
The more people spend, she says, the more businesses make, the more they can rehire staff, and the more those so-called “have-nots” can feel some relief.
Scripps National News
June 17, 2021
Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs and labor counsel at the Economic Policy Institute, says the Trump-era NLRB ruling effectively denied Uber drivers and other gig workers the collective bargaining rights granted by the National Labor Relations Act.
“We hope the NLRB will correct this error and ensure that these workers have the right to a union,” she said.
CNN Business
June 16, 2021
Thompson also points out that most digital nomads are white. That tracks with new research from the Economic Policy Institute, which shows that in the US, one in four white workers are able to work from home – that’s compared to one in five black workers, and one in six Hispanic workers. The organisation found disparity across education levels, too: one in three workers with a bachelor’s degree were able to work from home during the pandemic, compared to about one in 20 workers with only a secondary-school education.
BBC
June 16, 2021
In the current political environment, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to trade deficits, job losses and China. To help cut through all the noise, the Economic Policy Institute conducted an extensive study of U.S.-China trade data to determine the net amount of job losses across America. Data from the U.S. International Trade Commission DataWeb was conformed to Bureau of Labor Statistics industry classifications to determine the results, which were further parsed by state and by Congressional district.
GO Banking Rates
June 16, 2021
But there’s been pushback from economists like Heidi Shierholz of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who wrote in the New York Times last week that states “cutting pandemic programs are weakening their own recoveries,” and that higher wages, not ending benefits, could solve perceived issues with worker shortages.
CNN Business
June 16, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, CEO take-home pay grew by around 1,200 percent from 1978 to 2019. Meanwhile, the compensation for typical workers grew by 13.7 percent.
New York Magazine
June 16, 2021
A team of White House economics advisers had, ostensibly, convened a brain trust of left-leaning think tanks and policy experts on Monday evening to discuss how they might help President Joe Biden build a case for his economic agenda, a pair of proposals hitting the skids in negotiations with both Republican senators and their moderate Democratic colleagues.
But the wonks wouldn’t get down to business until Biden’s aides addressed one matter: Why had Biden and the White House appeared to have abandoned support for the supplemental unemployment benefits buoying workers through the fragile economic recovery? Representatives from multiple organizations—including the Economic Policy Institute, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Hamilton Project—raised the issue when it was their turn to speak, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Attendees didn’t belabor the subject, but the message was clear: The administration’s recent messaging on the subject is a real problem.
Mother Jones
June 14, 2021
More than a half-million child care workers would see a pay raise if the minimum wage was increased to $15 per hour, according to a new report.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that more 43.5 percent of child care workers, or 560,000 people, would benefit from the minimum wage being bumped to $15 per hour in the next four years.
Roughly 95 percent of the child care workers who would get a pay raise are women, and 36 percent are Black or Hispanic. Black and Hispanic child care workers would see their yearly income rise by $3,200 and $3,100, respectively.
“Low wages for child care workers reinforce existing racial and gender inequality, since both Black child care workers and women are particularly likely to see their wages increase with a $15 minimum wage,” Julia Wolfe, a co-author of the report and state economic analyst for EPI, said in a statement. “Child care workers deserve to be paid a wage that better reflects the value of their work and allows them to care for their own families.”
Newsweek
June 14, 2021
Josh Bivens/Economic Policy Institute: “They should definitely stand pat.” Fed officials view the price spike as a temporary consequence of the economy’s rapid reopening….and say supply will eventually rise to meet demand. “We’re measuring prices relative to a year ago and prices had just collapsed. and so if you take out what economists call that base effect, you get numbers more like just over 2% for core inflation over the past 12 months. That’s not much to worry about at all.”
Hearst TV
June 11, 2021