The $900 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress at the end of December extended the PUA program through at least March but also added a new verification process that forces applicants to reapply in order to reduce fraud.
- That and President Trump’s delay in signing the bill is likely why the number of first-time PUA claims fell from more than 310,000 for the week ending Dec 26 to 161,400 during the week ending Jan. 2, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, tells Axios.
- That created “uncertainty/confusion about whether PUA would even exist,” she says. “I assume the drop is temporary.”
Axios
January 8, 2021
Black and Latino workers who remain employed in manufacturing were paid 23 to 25 percent less than similarly educated Whites performing the same tasks, according to a 2013 study by the Economic Policy Institute. Median weekly earnings in 2020 were $806 for Black workers and $786 for Latino workers, compared with $1,018 for White workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Washington Post
January 8, 2021
The slow recovery is only expected to exacerbate income inequalities that existed well before the pandemic, Bremmer said. Wages for the richest 1% of Americans have soared 160% over the last four decades, while wages for the bottom 90% have shrunk, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. Most white-collar jobs have shifted to work from home, while essential workers earning lower wages have taken on the biggest health risks, jobs that require face-to-face interaction.
Yahoo Finance
January 8, 2021
Am I suggesting that last spring’s economic impact payments of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child were a waste of money? I am not. According to the Economic Policy Institute, those payments lifted 8.2 million people out of poverty. But remember where we were last spring. The Covid-19 lockdown cratered the economy, with gross domestic product dropping by one-third. GDP rebounded over the summer.
New Republic
January 8, 2021
In a country that is short an estimated 100,000 teachers or more, that’s a common problem, said Emma García, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. And while clear data on COVID-19-related teacher retirements, resignations, and layoffs remain difficult to come by, cratering state budgets offer plenty of reason to believe that shortage is about to get worse.
“We know from plenty of previous recessions that after a crisis, there’s a cut in the number education jobs,” García said.
Education Week
January 8, 2021
According to a 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute, employers in the United States spend roughly $340 million on union avoidance consultants each year, who often report being paid in the neighborhood of $350 hourly rates or $2,500 a day for their work fending off unions.
VICE
January 8, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 25.7 million workers in the US remain officially unemployed, otherwise out of work due to the pandemic, or have experienced a reduction in work hours or pay.
The Guardian
January 8, 2021
In 2019, the median Black household earned just 61 cents for every dollar of income for the median Caucasian household, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Public News Service
January 8, 2021
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