While BLS, which is non-partisan, didn’t discuss the political implications of the rise in jobless claims or the end of the federal jobless checks, speakers at the virtual Democratic National Convention did. So did the Economic Policy Institute.
“Last week was the third week of unemployment in this pandemic for which recipients did not get the extra $600,” EPI Policy Director Heidi Shierholz said. “That means people on unemployment insurance are now forced to get by on the meager benefits which are in place without the extra payment, which are typically around 40% of their pre-virus earnings. It goes without saying that most folks can’t exist on 40% of prior earnings without experiencing a sharp drop in living standards and enormous pain.
People’s World
August 21, 2020
The virus’s economic impact fell particularly hard on Latina workers, who were overrepresented in the industries most devastated by COVID-19-induced shutdowns, according to the analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Citing the “historical segregation” of workers, “job losses do not affect workers of different races and ethnicities and genders in a similar way,” wrote co-authors Elise Gould, Daniel Perez and Valerie Wilson.
Latinx workers as a group are caught in a “double bind,” Wilson added in a statement, “They are the least likely to be able to work from home to avoid coronavirus exposure and the most likely to have lost their job during the COVID-19 recession,” she said.
MarketWatch
August 21, 2020
A new report by the liberal Economic Policy Institute shows that CEO compensation at the top 350 companies in America grew to $21.3 million in 2019, which was $2.6 million or 14 percent higher than in 2018.
Urban Milwaukee
August 21, 2020
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute says the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately killing Latinos.
Valerie Wilson is the director of the institute’s Program on Race, Inequality and the Economy.
“In particular, among those between the ages of 35 and 44,” Wilson said. “I believe that the Latinx death rate was as much as almost nine times higher than it was for white Americans in that same age category.”
Arizona Public Media
August 21, 2020
The most recent information breaking down unemployment by race is from the last three months of 2019, before the pandemic. Nationally, Black workers had the highest unemployment rate at 5.7 percent. In Florida, it was higher at 5.9 percent. At the time, overall unemployment in the Sunshine State was 3.1 percent. As of June 2020, it’s 10.4 percent.
The Economic Policy Institute says in the coming weeks it will release the most recent data breaking down unemployment by racial demographics.
10 Tampa Bay
August 21, 2020
With Covid shuttering many college campuses this fall, as many as one out of five college kids may be considering taking a gap year instead of taking online classes from their mother’s couch. A typical rationale: “I’d rather get a Door Dash job than miss out on my college experience.” It could prove an expensive choice.
Bloomberg
August 21, 2020
It’s a frustrating process, says Economic Policy Institute Economist Monique Morrissey, whose expertise lies in retirement security and Social Security.
She says that claimants receiving benefits after appeal “isn’t necessarily a good thing,” because it highlights that most people should have received their benefits from the start.
“Their [SSA] M.O. is to say ‘no’ and tell you that you can appeal,” she said. “The process almost requires getting an advocate, if you can afford to get a lawyer.”
Yahoo Finance
August 21, 2020
But the ability to work remotely “differs enormously by race and ethnicity,” experts from the
Economic Policy Institute have pointed out.
Black and Hispanic workers in the United States are “much less likely” to be able to work from home, economists Heidi Shierholz and Elise Gould wrote in a post in March.
CNN
August 21, 2020
Heidi Shierholz of the progressive Economic Policy Institute said Thursday that the data present a strong argument for Congress to revive the enhanced unemployment benefits that expired at the end of July. “We remain 12.9 million jobs below where we were before the virus hit, and the unemployment rate is higher than it ever was during the Great Recession. Now isn’t the time to cut benefits that support jobs,” she wrote.
The Fiscal Times
August 21, 2020
A well-known Cornell University
study estimated that drivers in Seattle earned an average of $23/hr — but a later study by The New School and UC Berkeley argued
it was only $9.73/hr when accounting for expenses. The
Economic Policy Institute has also broken down how much a driver might really pocket after fees, expenses, and self-employment taxes. According to Alva, pay has gone down in the past several years too. Dubal’s research shows that, between 2014 to 2019, long-term rideshare drivers saw their earnings drop by about 60%.
Refinery29
August 21, 2020