If Congress decides to reinstate a federal unemployment benefit bonus — in any amount — it will likely take two to four weeks for payments to flow to states and then recipients, according to the Economic Policy Institute. So far, the proposal has been introduced only in the Senate. Democratic congressional leaders are currently negotiating with the GOP on the particulars of the plan.
CNET
October 8, 2020
“This is incredibly cruel and also just terrible economics,” Heidi Shierholz, the director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, said. Many Americans living through the pandemic without work relied on bolstered unemployment benefits for necessary purchases. The expansion has since dried up, leaving jobless families to stretch their dollar even further.
“It’ll mean more people dropping into poverty and people making terrible choices between rent, medicine, and food on the table,” Shierholz added.
Markets Insider
October 8, 2020
Although definitive data will not be available until 2021, numerous studies have estimated the effect of the 2020 recession on job-based coverage and the uninsured rate. Analyses have been conducted by Avalere Health, the Commonwealth Fund, the Economic Policy Institute, Families USA, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Urban Institute, among others. The Urban Institute even conducted a separate analysis of some of these studies to compare their assumptions and estimates.
HealthAffairs
October 8, 2020
“Hasta 33 millones de trabajadores han sido perjudicados por la recesión por no tener empleo o por tener sus horas y su salario reducido”, explican los economistas del Economic Policy Institute.
El Diario
October 8, 2020
More than 21 million Americans are currently unemployed, and another 11.5 million have seen reduced hours and pay during the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. Although the unemployment rate has fallen from its pandemic peak, job growth is slowing and the number of layoffs has increased. The lack of new stimulus funding risks turning the U.S. economy into “a wasteland,” economists have warned.
Huffington Post
October 8, 2020
Economists say other relief policies have proved more effective at boosting the economy. For instance, an extra $600 in weekly unemployment pay helped bolster households that had suffered job or income losses — until it expired in July. In May alone, the program boosted personal income by $842 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CBS News
October 8, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, estimated that at least 33m workers have been harmed directly, after taking account of misclassification, undercounting, those who have dropped out of the labour force and those whose hours and pay were cut after the reimposition of local lockdowns.
Financial Times
October 8, 2020
A pair of complementary reports, rolled out by the Communications Workers of America and Economic Policy Institute on Monday…[behind paywall]
Law360
October 7, 2020
Further, many teachers work in schools that may not have the resources to safely address Covid-19. In a recent poll by NPR, 78% of teachers expressed concerns about accessing sufficient amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) and in-classroom cleaning supplies. Teachers spent an average of $450 of their own money for classroom supplies even prior to the pandemic, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, which also pointed to considerable out-of-pocket expenses for supplies related to the prevention of Covid-19.
Forbes
October 7, 2020