Though the numbers are encouraging, there still aren’t enough jobs available for everyone who is unemployed, according to the Economic Policy Institute, which analyzes jobs impacting low- and middle-income workers.
On average, there were 9.8 million unemployed workers compared with 8.1 million job openings in March. That means there were 1.2 unemployed workers for every job opening.
In other words, for every 12 unemployed workers, there were only 10 jobs available, the institute said. That means there were no jobs available for 1.6 million unemployed workers, no matter what they did.
The most impacted were educational services, accommodation and food services, other services, and transportation and utilities, where there were more than three unemployed workers for every two job openings, the institute’s analysis showed.
Chicago Tribune
May 14, 2021
“Particularly with the lack of a Wage and Hour administrator, it is tougher to go forward with proactive things,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at DOL and now a senior economist and policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “It’s going into new territory, and it makes sense—they need a wage and hour administrator in there to lead on that.”
Bloomberg Law
May 14, 2021
Lee was most recently the president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which put on that 2014 conference and has been critical of free trade policies. Earlier this year, she testified on Capitol Hill in support of the Biden administration’s plan to bolster workers here in the U.S., drawing attention to low-wage workers who rely on federal anti-poverty programs to make ends meet.
At the Labor Department, Lee will turn her attention to labor practices and abuses overseas. The bureau she heads up has already been scrutinizing the products made with forced labor in Xinjiang, an issue she is expected to weigh in on during future China trade talks.
NPR
May 14, 2021
Bob spoke with Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, and former chief economist for the Department of Labor during the Obama administration, to find out what the numbers can really tell us, and what they can’t.
WNYC On Media
May 14, 2021
Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, said there is some evidence of a labor shortage in the leisure and hospitality industry. Wages may be slowly increasing but they’re still not high enough to attract workers, she argued.
Shierholz said fast-food employers are competing with hurdles like child care, ongoing health concerns and low wages. She said annual earnings for non-supervisory leisure and hospitality workers remain around $22,000 a year.
If employers want to bounce back, they need to address workforce concerns, Shierholz recommended.
“Listen to what workers need and then try to meet those,” she said. “People’s lives are just a lot more chaotic than they were before the recession. As much as policies can be adjusted to make room for that, that will help attract workers.”
ABC News
May 14, 2021
Alexia Fernandez Campbell, Senior Reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, and Terri Gerstein, Senior Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute and Director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program, talk with reporter Chris Bangert-Drowns about wage theft during the pandemic, potential enforcement failures by the Department of Labor, and how to best end the practice.
WPFW
May 14, 2021
David Cooper, senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, told The American Independent Foundation that with the economy still 8.2 million jobs behind pre-pandemic levels, it was not the time to be cutting back unemployment benefits.
“There are far more people looking for work and unable to find it than there are employers unable to fill vacancies, and pulling back on [unemployment insurance] will only slow down the recovery,” he said. “To the extent that employers in some industries — like restaurants and leisure and hospitality — are having trouble finding staff, they need to take a hard look at the wages and quality of those jobs. Those industries are notoriously some of the lowest paying industries in the economy.”
He added, “I don’t think anyone should be surprised that some people might not be eager to take difficult jobs that are even harder now — and that might put their health at risk — if employers aren’t offering better pay and benefits than they were offering prior to the pandemic.”
The American Independent
May 14, 2021
American-made steel has been essential to our national security and our economy for decades. Now, with our economy beginning to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, it’s essential that the Biden administration continue supporting the U.S. steel industry by keeping Section 232 steel measures in place.
Morning Consult
May 14, 2021
Wages overall have not shot up significantly, which would be expected if employers needed to lure workers away from the higher unemployment benefits, said Valerie Wilson, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. And the leisure and hospitality industry, a low-wage sector that would be most affected by a disincentive, had the nation’s strongest growth last month, adding 331,000 jobs.
“If it was true people were staying out because of the money, they certainly wouldn’t be coming back to the lowest-paying jobs,” she said.
Boston Globe
May 14, 2021
“It’s just breathtakingly terrible economics,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the Department of Labor from 2014 to 2017, said in a tweet.
“It will cause enormous suffering of those whose benefits are cut off, and damage state economies by turning away federal money that is providing fiscal support,” she added.
CNBC
May 14, 2021