By the Economic Policy Institute’s count, the $600 UI benefit also helped the economy retain roughly 5 million jobs.
Although fiscal conservatives worry the unemployment bonus disincentives workers from returning to work, many economists point that the benefits of feeding the economy through the crisis outweigh the negatives.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed 4.8 million people who returned to work in June, bringing the unemployment rate below 12%. Despite the gains, senior economist for the Economic Policy Institute Heidi Shierholz estimated there remain 14 million more unemployed people than available jobs.
Courthouse News
August 4, 2020
“Aside from the reckless and unconscionable delay, the HEALS Act fails miserably on two crucial objectives: supporting the people most harmed by the coronavirus recession and ensuring a robust economic recovery,” Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said in a Tuesday statement.
Newsweek
August 4, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute’s Director of Research Josh Bivens said an “utterly enormous scale of recovery” was needed to return to U.S. economy to a healthy position.
“To put it simply, it could take years of historically fast GDP growth just to return the economy to the pre-COVID-19 status quo,” he added in a statement.
Newsweek
August 4, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, people of color also make up the majority of essential workers in several sectors, including food, agriculture, and industrial.
Orlando Sentinel
August 4, 2020
In May, there were four unemployed workers per job opening, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are currently about 14 million more unemployed workers than jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
August 4, 2020
This finding is corroborated by a series of other studies. For example, a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute found executive pay had grown by 997 percent between 1978 and 2014, while the average compensation for a private-sector production and nonsupervisory worker increased by just 10.9 percent.
Counterpunch
August 4, 2020
Black households are less likely to have multiple earners in their homes, meaning a job loss or wage reduction can be devastating, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Dayton Daily News
August 4, 2020
The president didn’t mention that the jobless rate under his leadership is already at historic highs—last week marked the 19th consecutive week that “unemployment claims have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Common Dreams
August 4, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute published a study in May regarding essential workers in the US. Almost half of essential workers in 2019 were women, and over 40 percent were people of color. Women made “up the majority of essential workers in health care (76 percent) and government and community-based services (73 percent),” jobs which are predominantly in-person, with limited to no ability to work remotely.
Nonprofit Quarterly
August 4, 2020
You might be asking, “but where am I going to find the resources to give my workers more?” Here, CEOs would do well to look in the mirror. According to the Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978, while the salary of the average worker has increased only 12%. The economy would suffer zero harm if CEOs were paid less.
Time
August 4, 2020