Media clips

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• Mothers see signs of economic hope after a year of stress

  “Employers have the ability to set the terms of the contract,” said Elise Gould, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

  “They’re really holding all the cards. They have all the leverage,” Gould said.

  Gould noted that the country was still down 8.4 million jobs in March from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. The economy had been steadily adding jobs before the virus left millions out of work, she said, so theoretically the jobs shortfall is even higher, perhaps as high as 11 million.

  Detroit Free Press May 7, 2021
• Spring Letdown: Hiring Slows In April, Raising New Challenges For Economy

  “We are certainly not seeing rapid wage growth that would really be the red flag of ‘Wow, things are tight. Employers truly on a really widespread basis can’t find the workers that they need,’” Shierholz said.

  NPR May 7, 2021
• May 7, 2021
  May 7, 2021
• What a Higher Minimum Wage Would Mean for Older Workers

  Many labor and retirement analysts say that raising the minimum wage would be a vital step for advancing the economic security of lower-wage workers in the second half of life.

  It would allow some to retire later, which could then boost their Social Security benefits when they finally claim them, said Ben Zipperer, economist at the progressive nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute.

  Next Avenue May 5, 2021
• Unemployment Benefits Are Not Creating A Worker Shortage

  It’s difficult to square the notion of a shortage of food service workers with the strong job growth in that industry, said Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the Labor Department now with the Economic Policy Institute. Dining and drinking establishments added 176,000 jobs in March, the biggest gain in any sector.

  “I’m sure that labor supply is lower than it would be if we didn’t have COVID, but that doesn’t mean there’s a labor shortage,” Shierholz said.

  Huffpost May 5, 2021
• Unemployment remains high, yet many businesses say they can’t find enough workers

  Despite anecdotal evidence from businesses, liberal economists said it’s unlikely the United States is facing a labor shortage. Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, noted that there are still far more unemployed workers than job openings, according to federal government surveys. She said there haven’t been meaningful wage increases, either, which are a hallmark of labor shortages.

  “It’s certainly happening in places,” Shierholz said of businesses having a hard time finding workers. “The real question is not whether it’s happening here or there, but is it a driving force in the labor market? And when you look at the data, it just doesn’t come up.”

  The Philadelphia Inquirer May 5, 2021
• Opinion: Biden isn’t pursuing socialism. He’s just trying to catch up with other wealthy democracies.

  The Economic Policy Institute notes that income inequality in the United States has been worsening for years: “From 1978 to 2018, CEO compensation grew by 1,007.5%. … In contrast, wages for the typical worker grew by just 11.9%.” Our level of income inequality is now closer to that of developing countries in Africa and Latin American than to our European allies.

  The Washington Post May 5, 2021
• Is Unemployment Insurance Behind the Fast-Food Labor Shortage?

  But are unemployment payments the culprit here? “It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny as a real driving factor,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. “There is basically a lever employers can pull if they truly are facing a labor shortage of some kind: They can pay more to either attract new workers into the labor force or poach workers who are already in the labor force.”

  Shierholz noted there have yet to be signs of significant wage growth in the industries where workers are purported to be in severe shortage, and that previous data during the pandemic and the 2008 economic recession demonstrated that expanded unemployment benefits had minimal to no impact on whether workers returned to work.

  The American Prospect May 5, 2021
• Montana to end expanded jobless benefits in June, offer return-to-work bonuses

  “There are lots of anecdotal reports swirling around about employers who can’t find workers,” Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a Tuesday op-ed. “But a closer look reveals there may be a lot less to this than meets the eye.”

  Shierholz said that while there may be bona fide labor shortages in some pockets of the country, there are still too few jobs for too many unemployed workers.

  “In the latest data on job openings, there were nearly 40 percent more unemployed workers than job openings overall, and more than 80 percent more unemployed workers than job openings in the leisure and hospitality sector,” she said.

  She added that those businesses should raise wages to attract more workers, particularly because service jobs “are inherently more stressful and potentially dangerous because workers now have to deal with anti-maskers and ongoing health concerns.”

  The Hill May 5, 2021
• Biden’s first 100 days are a big break with the Reagan legacy. He says jobs and families need an active state.

  Biden’s plans amount to a massive gamble that Democratic efforts to double down on government redistribution of wealth and resources won’t trigger a backlash. Elise Gould, economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the pandemic revealed “a tale of two economies,” starting with the substantially higher infection and death rates of Black, Latino, and Asian people in the US compared with Whites.

  “Just the sheer numbers of people who have died and gotten seriously ill and seeing the disparities in those numbers — I think makes it difficult not to do something and not to do something big to fix this.”

  Business Insider May 3, 2021