Also, from day one, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, of 50 of the most egregious actions Trump has actually rolled back worker protections and rights. This includes preventing workers from earning overtime, attempting to take away workers health care, and stacking agencies and the Supreme Court with anti-worker appointees. The “America first” rhetoric and the attacks on immigrants, it’s really just a racist shield that enthralls Trump’s base by signaling that he will end immigration from non-white countries.
The Intercept Podcast
October 19, 2020
More than 2.4 million workers had been unemployed for at least six months as of September, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Labor Department. It’s the most people mired in long-term joblessness since 2015 and a huge increase of 781,000 from the month before.
“It’s the biggest increase in long-term unemployment we’ve ever seen,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former Labor Department economist now with the Economic Policy Institute think tank.
Huffpost
October 19, 2020
Latina woman were employed in jobs that they were not able to do remotely so when those industries were hit by COVID-19 in the shutdowns they completely lost those jobs as opposed to being able to just continue working but doing so from home. That’s Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Institute.
NPR
October 19, 2020
Daniel Costa, director de investigación legal de inmigración en el Instituto de Políticas Económicas, con sede en Washington, dijo que Estados Unidos se beneficia de los trabajadores calificados extranjeros, pero que igual hace falta hacer ciertas reformas.
“Tu puedes traer legalmente a un trabajador por menos de lo que cuesta un trabajador en esta área”, dijo Costa. “Las compañías harán lo que sea mejor para sus resultados y sus ganancias”.
Costa fue coautor de un reciente reporte que muestra que el 60 por ciento de los puestos H-1B certificados por el Departamento del Trabajo tienen “asignados niveles de salarios muy por debajo del promedio local por esa ocupación”, agregando que pasar nuevas leyes es la “más sencilla y simple solución” para reformar el programa de trabajadores extranjeros temporales.
Voice of America
October 19, 2020
The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute recently produced a report detailing “the Trump administration’s 50 most egregious attacks on working people.” The head of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions, deemed Trump “the most anti-worker and anti-environment president of our lifetime.”
National Catholic Reporter
October 19, 2020
Fully funding the country’s water-system needs could create 800,000 jobs and expand GDP by $4.5 trillion over 20 years, according to a report from the ASCE. A 2014 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) concluded that spending at any level would create short-term increases in employment and economic activity, with more benefits tied to bigger investments.
Capital and Main
October 19, 2020
San Francisco Chronicle
October 19, 2020
First, unemployment figures themselves are notorious for lowballing real rates of joblessness, and these problems have been exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis. Heidi Shierholz from the Economic Policy Institute argues that the official unemployment number, 13.6 million, is a severe undercount. A very conservative estimate should count at least 21.5 million jobless workers, millions of whom are not considered officially “unemployed” because they are classified as “discouraged” and have dropped out of the labor force. That figure would translate to a more accurate (but still conservative) unemployment rate of 12.5 percent. This does not include another 11.5 million who have had their hours and pay cut as a result of the pandemic.
Jacobin
October 19, 2020
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
October 19, 2020
A report published earlier this year by Hira and Daniel Costa, an immigration law expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, concluded that major U.S. firms, including Silicon Valley technology giants, “take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage.”
Some H-1B workers receive more than the minimums, Hira noted. Hardest hit by the new rules will be firms that pay H-1B employees at or near the minimums, he said. Hira expects the wage change to usher in a higher-skilled H-1B workforce that will complement American workers without pushing compensation down.
East Bay Times
October 19, 2020