Media clips

• States, Localities Need Federal Aid to Restore Jobs, Avoid More Layoffs

  More than 70 percent of the lost state and local jobs are in education, both K-12 and higher education. As my colleague Wes Tharpe detailed last month, states and school districts furloughed or laid off hundreds of thousands of education workers in the spring, from teachers in Massachusetts to bus drivers in New York. Half of the lost K-12 jobs in March and April were among special education teachers, tutors, and teaching assistants, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Large losses also occurred among counselors, nurses, janitors, and maintenance workers.

  Center on Budget and Policy Priorities October 9, 2020
• A shortage of teachers and Covid-19 create a perfect storm for the education system

  The shortage of teachers is being felt far beyond just Rhode Island. The Economic Policy Institute reports that, as of September, public K-12 education employment is more than half a million jobs below its year-ago levels, and 890,000 below where it would have to be to keep up with growth in student enrollment since 2008. About half of those roles are teachers; others include counselors, teaching assistants, roles in special education, food service and more.

  Covid-related strains on state and local budgets may only worsen the issue moving ahead.

  “We are seeing federal policymakers not extend enhanced unemployment benefits,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI, noting the stalemate in Washington, D.C., over Covid-related aid. “Where will they have the money to shore up their K-12 education system? Education is often on the chopping block when looking at state and local government budgets.”

  CNBC October 9, 2020
• October 9
  October 9, 2020
• Few in number, Black residents in Appalachia push for justice

  Between the last quarter of 2007, also the last quarter before the Great Recession, and the first quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate for white Kentuckians declined 1.1 percentage points, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

  GazetteXtra October 9, 2020
• This Is an Emergency: Americans Need Relief, and Trump Is Standing in the Way

  Workers in several sectors face a full-blown crisis. According to White House economics reporter Jeff Stein, 40 percent of all restaurants face closure in the next six months. Some 50,000 airline workers face layoffs. And the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz told me that more than 20 million jobless workers face an income reduction of more than 60 percent on average.

  Common Dreams October 9, 2020
• The $185 million campaign to keep Uber and Lyft drivers as contractors in California
  But contrary to the Yes campaign’s positioning, there’s nothing in California law that prevents companies from providing such flexibility to workers, regardless of employment status, as some labor experts have pointed out. Terri Gerstein of the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and Economic Policy Institute called it a “faux concern.”
  CNN October 9, 2020
• Puerto Rican-American Factory Worker Tells His Story of Economic Struggles in ‘The Disrupted’

  Before the negative impact COVID-19 had on the economy this year, many Americans working in manufacturing plants saw their jobs disappear over the last few years. According to the Economic Policy Institute, nearly 1,800 factories shut down during the Trump administration between 2016-2018.

  Remezcla October 9, 2020
• Harris took more hits than Pence in a night of vice-presidential dodgeball

  China: Biden was unambiguous that China is a problem for the United States and not a friend. Harris completely booted the issue, speaking as if she was at an Economic Policy Institute roundtable — talking consumer prices and Xi Jinping’s approval rating. There is not much that Democrats and Republicans agree on, but both groups think China is a menace.

  The Hill October 9, 2020
• Layoffs Keep Coming With Jobless Claims at ‘Staggeringly High’ Levels

  Add in the people who are still waiting to receive their benefits or hear about the status of their applications and the number rises to over 26 million, says Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute (see the chart below). Shierholz cautions, though, that the data is far from perfect, and is almost certainly distorted by backlogs, double-counting and fraud. “All this means nobody knows exactly how many people are receiving unemployment insurance benefits right now,” she said, “which is another reminder that we need to invest heavily in our data infrastructure and technology.”

  The Fiscal Times October 9, 2020
• Trump’s Anti-Worker Labor Board

  As Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, and Lynn Rhinehart of the Economic Policy Institute wrote in their October 2019 report “Unprecedented: The Trump NLRB’s Attack on Workers’ Rights”: “The Trump board has repeatedly reversed long-standing board precedent, weakening workers’ rights and giving more power to employers. In the two years that Republicans have held the majority on the board, they have overturned NLRB precedent in more than a dozen cases. All of these decisions overturning precedent favor employers.” In most cases, the Board has issued these types of rulings without even bothering to solicit public input, a reversal of its normal practice.

  Labor Notes October 9, 2020