Bernstein arrived in Washington in 1992 to work under labor economist Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning, labor-aligned think tank founded six years earlier at a time when pro-free trade, anti-union philosophy dominated economic thought. The duo—”the Lennon and McCartney of economics,” Mishel recalls Bernstein calling them—uncovered what was then a new and concerning development: The economy was more productive than ever, but workers’ wages remained flat. They placed the blame for that on the policy choices that had decimated worker power. “[Bernstein and Mishel] were pushing that at a time when that was seen as a very, very strange view,” says Dean Baker, a labor economist who worked with Mishel and Bernstein at EPI and co-authored books with Bernstein on full employment.
Mother Jones
October 29, 2020
The numbers are particularly devastating for nonwhite women. In April, the unemployment rate hovered around 17% among Black women and 20% for Latina women, compared to about 15% for white women and 12% for white men, according to data from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
VICE
October 29, 2020
That makes sense, considering that younger generations are the most likely to be unemployed or underemployed because of the pandemic, according to research from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Unemployment rates among Gen Z (defined here as those ages 16 to 24) saw a significant increase, jumping to 24.4% in April, May and June. That’s up from a higher-than-average unemployment rate of 8.4% during the same period in 2019.
About half, 49.6%, of Americans got their health insurance through their employer last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But because of layoffs during the pandemic, as many as 12 million Americans have lost their health coverage, the Economic Policy Institute estimates.
CNBC
October 29, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator was used to determine the local cost of living, which includes housing, food, health care, transportation and other necessities. In many of the locations examined in the study – which identified the region in each state where the cost of living is lowest – housing costs can account for less than 15 percent of total living expenses.
The Center Square
October 29, 2020
At the same time that home prices have gone up, wages for the average worker have failed to keep pace. Research from the Economic Policy Institute shows that while wages for high-income workers grew steadily since the 1980s, middle- and low-income workers have actually seen their wages stagnate or even decline after adjusting for inflation.
Napa Valley Register
October 29, 2020
Josh Bevins, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute points out, for instance, that “because the COVID-19 shock has been so centered in low-wage sectors, any given dollar value of GDP lost translates into far more people who have lost jobs.” When economic power is in the hands of a few and gains (and losses) are unequally distributed, GDP growth (or decline) can cover up the extent to which the rich are getting richer or hide the negative impact on workers.
People's Weekly World
October 29, 2020
Women Are Still Facing Higher Levels Of Unemployment Than Men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.7 percent of women over the age of 20 remain unemployed, compared to 7.4 percent of men, though the gap has likely narrowed due to surges of women leaving the workforce. Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute told The 19th: “…there is a real possibility many jobs lost by women will never come back.”
Protect Our Care
October 29, 2020
But the exploding demand for real estate—and the resulting rise in housing costs—could also further squeeze the working class of residents, for whom life in the Wood River Valley is already barely affordable. That’s a larger group than outside onlookers may realize. A United Way study published earlier this year found that more than half of people living in Blaine County are either below the federal poverty level or “working but unable to afford basic household necessities. South of the glitz of Sun Valley, a 2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute ranked Hailey as the ninth most unequal city in America.
Idaho Mountain Express
October 29, 2020
“The enormous contraction of GDP in the second quarter means any growth in the third quarter is coming off of a significantly smaller base of GDP,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.
WRAL Tech Wire
October 29, 2020
His research with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that in 2019, IT staffing companies such as Infosys, Deloitte and Cognizant had applied for large numbers of H-1B workers at the second-lowest wage levels, while Bay Area technology giants Google, Apple, Cisco and Oracle had a mix of higher and lower levels.
The Mercury News
October 29, 2020