But Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens said the $600 payments have been a boon for the country’s economy, allowing people to keep their homes and avoid bankruptcy filings. He also said the payments support jobs, as unemployed workers spend much of the money at shops and grocery stores.
Des Moines Register
July 30, 2020
California would lose about $1.4 billion weekly and $12.9 billion by the end of September under the GOP plan, according to the nonpartisan Century Foundation. It would also lose nearly 560,000 jobs over the next year, more than any other state, the progressive Economic Policy Institute found.
Cal Matters
July 30, 2020
Even if Congress does extend the aid before July 31, it will take two to four weeks for states to reinstate the benefits according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNET
July 30, 2020
Through past recessions, UI benefits have been shown to be one of the most effective ways to stimulate the economy with approximately $2 injected into the economy per $1 received through these benefits.[3] Furthermore, the Economic Policy Institute projects “that extending the $600 UI benefits through the middle of 2021 would provide an average quarterly boost to gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.7% and employment of 5.1 million workers.”[4] We cannot risk losing this projected increase in GDP and related jobs this spending supports due partisan differences. With a drastic reduction in UI benefits, fiscally constrained families will be unable to purchase food and rent that will support our economy.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
July 30, 2020
“Ensuring that workers and consumers can hold companies accountable for their actions is critical to establishing a safe reopening of our economy,” Celine McNicholas and Margaret Poydock of the labor-associated Economic Policy Institute have observed.
Los Angeles Times
July 30, 2020
But fellow economist Ben Zipperer of the Economic Policy Institute disagrees with Bourne’s assessment.
“That kind of concern has always been raised when we’re talking about the minimum wage, and it doesn’t seem to actually play out in reality,” Zipperer said.
KXLH
July 30, 2020
“There’s a lot of people who just really, really, really struggled to even get through the system, get anyone to talk to them,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. “When you have that experience over and over and over again, I actually can see why somebody would just say forget it, and give up.”
It is hard to know how many people who are eligible for unemployment have given up, or never tried to apply, but a survey EPI did in April found that for every 10 people who successfully filed for unemployment benefits, three or four were unable to get through, and two didn’t bother to try because it was too difficult. That was in the early days of the pandemic, when weekly unemployment claims first skyrocketed into the millions; state unemployment offices were unequipped to deal with the volume of calls and online applications.
Marketplace
July 30, 2020
People of color make up a disproportionate number of essential workers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, there are 55.2 million essential workers in the US. Half of those in food and agriculture, and 53% in industrial, commercial, residential facilities and services, are people of color.
Business Insider
July 30, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist of the Department of Labor, tweeted that as the coronavirus crisis drags on, more than 17 million people are expected to switch to PEUC.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 30, 2020