“It doesn’t change the overall picture — we had a tight labor market that was pulling people in and reducing poverty,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. But it underscores that “there was still a lot of room for improvement.”
New York Times
September 16, 2020
In a response to Harris and Krueger, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) wrote a paper noting that Uber drivers cannot keep their apps open and reject rides without being penalized by Uber for having a low acceptance rate. It also noted that Uber operates a “guaranteed earnings” program that keeps track of work time and basically functions like a minimum wage. “We disagree with the proposal to deny minimum-wage and overtime protections to Uber drivers and see no need for a third employment status,” the paper concluded.
Medium
September 16, 2020
The trend is mirrored nationwide. Manufacturing across the U.S. is still down 720,000 workers from February despite gaining 29,000 jobs in August, with the pandemic more than wiping out the overall modest gains of 500,000 from Trump’s first three years in office — about the same pace of growth as under President Barack Obama. It was not an improvement over prior years — nor did it manage to restore more than a fraction of the jobs lost in the previous decade, according to an August analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Politico
September 16, 2020
Census officials noted the response rate to its annual survey was just 73% in March because of the health crisis, compared to about 83% in prior months and a year earlier. Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, says the low rate raises “significant concerns about data quality.”
USA Today
September 16, 2020
That means the change in real median household income between 2018 and 2019 would have been a 4.1% increase instead of 6.8%, according to Elise Gould, senior economist for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
September 16, 2020
Trump promised to restore manufacturing jobs. Wrong. An Economic Policy Institute report in August said the U.S. has lost “nearly 1,800 factories … during the Trump administration between 2016 and 2018 (bit.ly/2Zffztf).
Hood River News
September 16, 2020
There is some irony in the fact that the worst health care crisis in our lifetime has taken the focus off of health care coverage, even though, according to the Economic Policy Institute think tank, an estimated 6.2 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored health coverage because of the coronavirus-caused recession.
WFAE
September 16, 2020
COVID-19 job losses have exacerbated lack of access to prenatal care. The Economic Policy Institute estimates up to 12 million American workers have lost access to their employer-sponsored insurance – and women are overrepresented in the industries making significant cuts, including retail and restaurant jobs.
KCUR
September 16, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that 12 million people have lost health insurance received through their workplace or that of a family member. Some of those have been able to enroll in Medicaid — its rolls have risen by about 4 million during the pandemic — but others find it unaffordable.
Washington Post
September 16, 2020