Cutting unemployment benefits from $600 per week to $200 per week would lead to 3.4 million fewer jobs created over the next year, a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute found.
Forbes
July 27, 2020
There is, after all, a difference between “universal” and “affordable,” and when it comes to childcare, that difference counts for quite a lot. Childcare currently costs more than state college in many locations and sometimes more than rent. Warren, pulling from state-by-state figures by the Economic Policy Institute, put the average cost at between 9% and 36% of a family’s income.
Medium
July 27, 2020
24/7 Wall St. used data from the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator to identify the least expensive place in every state. We ranked counties based on the estimated monthly cost for a single adult to maintain a modest yet adequate standard of living.
24/7 Wall Street
July 27, 2020
Elise Gould, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said college students have been left out much of the federal pandemic relief efforts. They had to have already been working to qualify for the extra $600 in unemployment benefits, for example, and they might not have been part of a household that received the $1,200 stimulus money.
“There could be a job-seekers’ allowance,” Gould said of a proposal that would help support graduates through unemployment. “But you would need support from both sides.”
Baltimore Sun
July 27, 2020
“This is now the 18th week in a row that unemployment insurance (UI) claims have been more than twice the ‘worst’ week of the Great Recession,” a decade ago, Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz tweeted.
People's Weekly World
July 27, 2020
Emphasize that a furlough is not about performance. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that nearly 20 million workers will be laid off or furloughed by July. That’s a sobering statistic, but it highlights that furloughs are not due to underperformance but rather economics.
Williston Herald
July 27, 2020
“Congress needs to act immediately,” Economic Policy Institute (EPI) director of policy Heidi Shierholz wrote Thursday of the need for an extension of the $600 unemployment benefit. “If they let the extra payments expire and then reinstate them, it will be a needless administrative nightmare for state agencies, and recipients—who will face a lapse in benefits several weeks in most states—will pay the price.”
Common Dreams
July 27, 2020
Employers routinely “threaten, intimidate, and harass workers” to stop them from forming unions, and much of it is perfectly legal, a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute reports.
Next City
July 27, 2020
Many economists, however, point out that there are not enough jobs to go back to. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May there were 3.9 unemployed people per job opening. “Cutting benefits to incentivize people to take jobs that aren’t there is terrible economics, and just cruel,” says Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “It will cause a huge amount of human suffering.” What’s more, she adds, many people aren’t going back to work not because of unemployment checks, but due to the risk of contracting COVID-19, or because of childcare responsibilities while schools, summer camps, and daycares remain closed. “It doesn’t matter how much you cut their benefits; it’s impossible to incentivize them to take a job because they cannot,” she says. “So if you cut their benefits, you’re only hurting them.”
Mother Jones
July 27, 2020
The number of people receiving some kind of unemployment aid remains near highs recorded in June. According to economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, 34.3 million workers are either receiving benefits or waiting to learn the results of their applications for assistance.
The Fiscal Times
July 27, 2020