Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief Labor Department economist in the Obama administration, said the picture will turn even more grim if Congress doesn’t provide additional aid right away.
In particular, she noted, budget-strained state and local governments will make further cuts in spending, setting back the recovery potentially by years as happened after the Great Recession in 2008-09.
States and local government activity accounts for 12% to 15% of the national economy, she said, and it will be a “massive drag” on growth if there’s no help for the governments. “They’ll be like little anti-stimulus machines,” she said.
LA Times
December 7, 2020
In the coming weeks some 12 million Americans will stop receiving unemployment benefits, the CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium will expire, student loan borrowers will resume payments on their debts, and other financial relief programs will expire.
“It’s kind of devastating,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
“We were already in this terrible situation now the caseloads are rising and the relief is going to end. What that means for the economy moving forward is, I hate to say it, but we could be seeing a double-dip to the recession.”
Friday’s jobs report made it clear to Gould that it is “absolutely necessary to reinstate and extend all the unemployment programs.” That would include Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which through the CARES Act, enabled gig workers, self-employed workers and independent contractors to qualify for unemployment benefits.
MarketWatch
December 7, 2020
Biden rolled out his “Made in America” plan during a speech in Warren in September, committing his administration to spending $400 billion on domestically produced products, creating a 10 percent tax to penalize U.S. companies that offshore jobs and a 10 percent credit to companies to invest in U.S. jobs and close loopholes in Trump’s 2017 tax cut plan, including an exemption on the first 10 percent of profit for a company that locates production or call centers overseas.
Will it make a difference?
Maybe not, said Robert Scott, director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive nonprofit think tank in Washington.
He said the effects of the plan are “marginal at best,” but he said the tax penalty could “create incentives for companies to bring jobs home.”
Biden also plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent after Trump had lowered it from 39 percent.
Scott predicted the increase would generate more taxes while having little to no impact on job creation.
Bridge Michigan
December 7, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated December 2 that 5.1 million more jobs would be created if the government kept open the suite of pandemic unemployment insurance programs in 2021, including the extra $600-per-week benefit.
Yahoo Finance
December 7, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, previously told Business Insider that recessions typically hit younger workers harder in the short term, potentially reaping long-term consequences.
“The way a recession can really hurt people just starting out can have lasting effects,” she said. “There’s a lot of evidence that the first postgrad job you get sets the stage in some important way for later.”
Business Insider
December 7, 2020
In 2010, 10.4% of Millennial college graduates in the US were officially unemployed. That’s already a large number, but for those without higher education credentials, the situation was over three times worse. High school graduates were unemployed at a rate of 32.7% in 2010, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington based think tank.
Quartz
December 7, 2020
“Good data is essential for policymaking in a crisis and we did not have that this time around, which is unacceptable,” Shierholz, now director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, tells Axios in an email. “[K]nowing exactly what happened so that we can make the investments to ensure this will never happen again is crucial.”
Axios
December 7, 2020
Investment in sustainable school construction, like updated lighting, plumbing and electrical systems, as well as renewable energy projects, would not only be a great climate solution, but would generate significant numbers of new jobs. A $100 billion investment would create more than 1.9 million jobs, based on an Economic Policy Institute analysis.
The 74 Million
December 7, 2020
Elise Gould, senior economist at the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, said holiday hiring in November didn’t make up for other factors slowing the recovery. She also noted expanded unemployment insurance benefits will expire the day after Christmas.
“This spells trouble not only for workers and their families who are desperately trying to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table—especially with the eviction moratorium also set to expire on December 31—but also for the recovery itself,” she wrote. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
Gould said over 5 million jobs could be created next year if lawmakers extended pandemic unemployment programs through 2021. She said relief efforts should focus on helping state and local governments.
Courthouse News Service
December 7, 2020
Former worker Grace Erpenbach told City Pages last month she was called into a meeting and presented with a choice: Stop organizing or lose your job. If true, such a threat would violate federal labor law even if it’s a common tactic. A recent study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found employers are charged with illegally firing employees in 20% of unionization efforts. Through a spokesperson, Spyhouse says Erpenbach was a manager and should not have participated in organizing efforts.
Payday Reports
December 7, 2020