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
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
There is also an economic argument to extending benefits. The expanded federal unemployment assistance injects $18 billion into the economy each week, money that goes to people who need it and spend it. Those funds help prevent a much worse economic collapse. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that cutting off the extra benefits risks losing an additional 5 million jobs, including more than 800,000 in California.
Dianne Feinstein
August 4, 2020
If Congress doesn’t extend enhanced unemployment benefits – that $600 per week meant to help Americans who lost jobs due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus – new research estimates more than 5 million jobs could be lost, including more than 191,000 in Ohio.
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said the enhanced unemployment benefit has helped millions of households pay for food, rent and other essentials. And she believes cutting off assistance will make racial inequality worse.
Cleveland Scene
August 4, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a recent statement there are currently 14 million more unemployed workers than there are job openings.
“Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there. It will just cause pain,” she wrote.
Capital Press
August 4, 2020