“Because we did not put the public health measures in place necessary to successfully reopen, the coronavirus has spiked, and the jobs gains we saw in May and June have stalled, if not reversed. Now is not the time to cut benefits that are supporting jobs,” wrote Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, in a blog post.
CNN Business
August 10, 2020
Today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows three months in a row of payroll employment gains, an increase in jobs of 1.8 million in July on top of 4.8 million in June and 2.7 million in May. But, because so many jobs were lost in March and April, we are still 12.9 million jobs below where we were in February, before the pandemic spread. The slowdown in jobs gained is likely due to a resurgence of the coronavirus and re-shuttering in parts of the country.
The Progressive Pulse
August 10, 2020
“The slowdown in jobs gained is likely due to a resurgence of the coronavirus and re-shuttering in parts of the country,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute.
Most of the July employment gains were seen in the leisure and hospitality industry, which includes restaurants and bars. That sector added 592,000 positions, but it’s still down 2.6 million jobs since February. Retail trade added 258,000 jobs while professional and business services gained 170,000.
Gould noted the unemployment rate is still higher than the worst month of the Great Recession.
“Federal policymakers need to act now to reinstate the $600 unemployment insurance benefits to the 30+ million workers who are desperately trying to make ends meet,” she wrote. “And, those benefits are supporting a huge amount of spending, which means, with it, the loss of about 5 million jobs.”
Courthouse News
August 10, 2020
A separate study by the Economic Policy Institute found that expanding jobless aid boosted personal income by $842 billion in May; extending the heightened benefits through mid-2021, the nonprofit said, would provide an average quarterly boon to GDP of 3.7 percent.
Fox News
August 10, 2020
The gap between those high on the income ladder and those in the middle and lower rungs did not change substantially from the end of the war until the 1970s, when the gap began to widen. The share of income growth captured by the top 1 percent in Massachusetts between 1945 and 1973, for example, was 2.9 percent. That figure rose to 50.4% in the period from 1973 to 2007, then to 58.4 percent in the eight years that followed, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Boston Globe
August 9, 2020
That eye-opening analysis came right after Congress passed the $2.0 trillion Trump/McConnell Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which in its first year bestowed 50 percent of the tax cuts on the top five percent income earners, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Popular Democracy.
And, while the “tax benefits to middle or low-income individuals are modest and will expire in 2025… the enormous tax breaks for corporations are permanent. By 2027, after the individual provisions expire, the top 1 percent of households alone will see 83 percent of the benefits of the TCJA.”
Insider NJ
August 9, 2020
As the Economic Policy Institute clearly explained earlier this year: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “penalties are insufficient to serve as a deterrent. Companies merely factor these penalties into the cost of doing business. Therefore, it is imperative that corporations have some legal incentive to adhere to health and safety guidelines.”
Business Insider
August 9, 2020
Growing income inequality in the U.S. is partly due to the disparity between what CEOs are paid and what they pay their workers. From 1978 to 2018, CEO compensation grew by 1,007.5% while wages for employees grew by only 11.9%, according to a 2019 report from Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.
Dallas Morning News
August 9, 2020
If Republicans refuse to come to an agreement with Democrats to provide financial relief to jobless Americans, the national impact is expected to be severe. The Economic Policy Institute has cautioned that “cutting off or reducing the $600 will cause enormous hardship and further damage the economy.”
Gothamist
August 9, 2020
Alva said that while he was driving with Lyft, he paid $35 for gas refills every two days, paid $1,200 a month for car maintenance, and last year spent between $1,000 and $1,500 on fixing flat tires. According to a 2018 study from the Economic Policy Institute, Uber drivers earned roughly $9.21 an hour after paying and vehicle expenses and commission fees to Uber.
48 hills
August 9, 2020