The Economic Policy Institute reports that this makes the 42nd straight week in which claims were greater than the worst week of the Great Recession. If Pandemic Unemployment Assistance isn’t counted, then jobless claims were greater than the second worst week of the Great Recession.
EPI’s analysis estimates that millions of people have exhausted their unemployment benefits — some of whom can reapply now that Congress has extended certain benefits through March — but such extensions “just kick the can down the road,” EPI says.
Next City
January 8, 2021
“Rising COVID-19 caseloads, hospitalizations and deaths means our health and economic woes are far from over,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “President-elect Biden is inheriting an exceedingly troubled economy with millions of families just trying to stay afloat.”
CNN Business
January 8, 2021
What’s the solution to that? A strong union movement is the irrefutable answer — especially in the wake of the pandemic. “During the crisis, unionized workers have been able to secure enhanced safety measures, additional premium pay, paid sick time, and a say in the terms of furloughs or work-share arrangements to save jobs,” wrote researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning, Washington, D.C., think tank, highlighting the benefits of a union.
Truthout
January 8, 2021
Over the last 40 years, incomes of the top 1% of American households have risen by about 160%, according to the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute; those of the bottom 90% by only 26%.
LA Times
January 8, 2021
In the meantime, the latest COVID relief package will have a positive effect on the economy as soon as this month, said Heidi Shierholz, at the Economic Policy Institute.
“Without that stimulus package, over 10 million people would have lost unemployment insurance benefits at the end of December,” Shierholz said. “That would have been a huge drag on the economy that we will not see.”
And, with the Democrats soon to be in charge, Shierholz said there is likely more relief on the way.
Marketplace
January 8, 2021
The proposal received 1,825 comments, including from the Economic Policy Institute, which estimates that the rule will cost workers — from delivery and transportation workers to those who work at call centers, in agriculture, home health care and elsewhere — at least $3.7 billion a year in pay and benefits.
MarketWatch
January 7, 2021
“It is a big deal already because we’re seeing over a third of the unemployed have now been long-term unemployed,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “That’s going to be continuing to rise.”
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
January 7, 2021
“Despite the fact that misclassification causes significant income loss for workers, the Department of Labor failed to quantify exactly how much workers stand to lose under this rule—a direct violation of the law. However, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that this rule will cost workers more than $3 billion each year. Moreover, social insurance programs, such as Unemployment Insurance, would take a $750 million hit each year, leaving workers even more vulnerable right in the midst of an economic crisis.
U.S. House Education and Labor Committee
January 7, 2021
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C., understands that plenty of people feeling the economic weight from the pandemic. Gould says stimulating the economy is definitely always important, but spending must be done safely.
“There’s plenty of people hurting. You could be donating some of that money to people to don’t have enough to put food on their plates,” says Gould. ”We want to stimulate the economy, but we want to keep people safe, so I think it’s really important we keep that second part in mind, and people are going to spend their money, let’s have it be things that don’t require in-person risk.”
Cleveland.com
January 7, 2021
But do universal payments reduce poverty? A research team ran the numbers on the CARES Act checks. Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute summarizes the results: Despite limited targeting, the $1,200 checks kept nearly 8.2 million Americans from poverty independent of unemployment insurance (another 7.2 million were kept from poverty because of unemployment insurance alone; combined, the two kept 13.2 million more out of poverty).
Nonprofit Quarterly
January 7, 2021