Media clips

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• Is there a labor shortage? What the May jobs report tells us

  Instead, tips likely account for the pay increase as restaurants and bars return to pre-Covid customer capacity, according to Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

  “Since December 2020, the rise in tip income, not an increase in base wages, can likely entirely explain the acceleration of wages for production and nonsupervisory workers in restaurants and bars,” he wrote Friday.

  CNBC June 10, 2021
• Help wanted: US job openings hit record high

  “The labor market is on the right track, but there is still millions of workers yet to be absorbed in the economic recovery,” Economic Policy Institute’s senior economist Elise Gould wrote in a Tuesday blog post.

  Al Jazeera June 10, 2021
• Labor Market Gains Traction With 559,000 New Jobs

  Elise Gould, senior economist at the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, noted the economy is still down 7.6 million jobs since early 2020 and said the real shortfall is more like 8.6 to 10.7 million when taking into account lost growth.

  Courthouse News Service June 10, 2021
• Key takeaways from May jobs report

  “Weekly wages for typical workers in leisure and hospitality translate to annual earnings of $20,714, far (far) lower than in other sectors, even with the recent acceleration. Those increases are not going to create broad wage pressure,” tweeted Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. She added that measured wages included tips, which had fallen off substantially when dining was banned or limited.

  “Recent wage growth in restaurants may not be largely from employers raising pay to attract workers, but from workers’ hourly tips—which plummeted during the downturn—normalizing as customers return,” she added.

  The Hill June 10, 2021
• Strong Job Growth Alone Won’t Solve Our Labor Market Problems

  Economic Policy Institute (EPI) economist Elise Gould, one of our best analysts on employment data, sees the report as a “promising sign that the recovery is on track.”  But she also notes that the “jobs shortfall” compared to pre-pandemic trends is “in the range of 8.6-10.7 million” additional jobs.  If this trend keeps up, Gould says the unemployment rate could hit 4% “by mid-2022” with full recovery before that year ends.

  Forbes June 10, 2021
• Offices are negotiating a ‘return to work’ — but many people never left their workplace during the pandemic

  As white-collar workplaces debate the future of hybrid work with more than half of U.S. adults fully vaccinated, a new analysis provides a reminder that access to remote work during the pandemic has been a privilege for a lucky few, not the norm.

  Just one in five U.S. workers are able to work remotely due to the pandemic, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from May 2020 to April of this year.

  Of course, the ability to telework once COVID-19 hit was not created equally — and disparities, falling along demographic dimensions like education and race, have endured over the course of the pandemic.

  About six in 10 workers with at least a bachelor’s degree were able to work remotely toward the start of the pandemic, compared to just 12% of workers with a high-school diploma or less. While the overall share of people teleworking declined over the ensuing months, a sizable gap between the two groups remains (34% versus 5%, respectively).

  MarketWatch June 4, 2021
• Why the U.S. Monthly Jobs Report Matters

  Since the jobs report is so important and such a recurring feature of the news cycle, it’s probably time that you understood what the heck it is. We reached out to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and an avid reader of the monthly jobs report, for some answers.

  HowStuffWorks June 4, 2021
• What would a better US immigration system look like? We asked the experts.

  Over the past four years, temporary worker programs have increased, while opportunities for permanent residency have declined, a shift that was accelerated by the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic. The shift has allowed for greater economic opportunities for migrants while also increasing instances of corporate exploitation of migrant labor, according to the progressive Economic Policy Institute.

  USA Today June 4, 2021
• Unemployment claims dip to another pandemic low

  “Nearly all the states cutting [unemployment insurance] still have significantly fewer jobs than before the pandemic,” David Cooper of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute noted in a blog post. “The country is simply not at a place yet where states should be cutting off supports to unemployed workers.”

  CBS Moneywatch June 4, 2021
• Lexington server weighs in on worker shortage

  For tipped workers like servers, base pay in Kentucky is $2.13 an hour and has been since 1991.

  Dave Cooper, senior analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, says that is the real problem.

  “Kentucky is one of only about 20 states that still use the federal standard for minimum wages,” said Cooper. “So if you’re a server in California, you’re making $14 an hour out of your paycheck, plus tips on top of that, whereas someone in Lexington, might only be making $2.13 an hour, and hopefully tips are getting up, getting them up to at least 7.25 but, you know in a lot of cases even that doesn’t.”

  Cooper says the argument that prices may increase is valid- but could be worth it in the long run.

  “There’s a lot of research that shows that when you raise wages, businesses, see some savings from lower turnover workers stay on the job longer, maybe they get better at their jobs,” said Cooper.

  LEX-TV June 4, 2021