Critics of the extra payment say it encourages people not to return to work, and take issue with the fact that some people earn more with the bonus than they did at their old jobs. But some economists say that is precisely the point: The extra $600 in benefits — deemed the “best” part of the economic response by Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz, economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute — keeps people home while allowing them to pay their bills and even save some money.
CNBC
July 7, 2020
Jhacova Williams, Economist at The Economic Policy Institute, joined Yahoo Finance’s Sibile Marcellus, Kristin Myers, and Jen Rogers to discuss the economist cost of racist symbols and the role structural racism has had in shaping soceity.
Yahoo Finance
July 7, 2020
Economic Policy Institute economists Heidi Shierholz and Elise Gould told Axios that on top of the 17.8 million unemployed workers, there are another 2 million workers who were misclassified as “employed not at work.”
Newsmax
July 7, 2020
It is far too early to know the extent of COVID-19’s impact – either from a public health or economic perspective. Instead, policymakers need to be vigilant in ensuring they’ve done everything they can to keep people safe and the economy stable in the face of the continuing effects of the pandemic. The key to both goals is having the federal government provide substantial fiscal aid to state and local governments over the coming years—on the order of $1 trillion between now and the end of 2021. Failure to do this will make U.S. families less safe and will leave the U.S. economy short more than 5 million jobs at the end of this time.
Tennessean
July 7, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) points out “this is the 15th week in a row that unemployment claims have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession.” On job creation, EPI notes we still have 14.7 million fewer jobs than in February. And June’s employment survey was conducted in the week ending June 13th, which came just before Covid cases began spiking upwards in Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, and other states.
Forbes
July 7, 2020
Even prior to the pandemic, minority communities struggled with higher rates of unemployment. Last year, the Black jobless rate was twice as high as the White unemployment rate in 14 states, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Washington Times
July 7, 2020
Moreover, workers who leave to care for children have no guarantee that they’ll get their job back, given the deep economic damage caused by the pandemic, said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg Law
July 7, 2020
In a 2018 study the Economic Policy Institute found that about 16 percent of non-Black Latinx workers and 20 percent of Black workers could complete their jobs or part of their jobs from home, while non-Latinx White workers’ average for telework was 30 percent.
TCU 360
July 7, 2020
More than 10 million Americans are currently categorized as temporarily out of work. But historically, nearly 30% of people who tell the Labor Department that they are temporarily unemployed never get their job back, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. “Even though we don’t know if the historical record will hold in this case, it’s an extremely valid concern that not all of those people are going to get called back,” she said.
CNN Business
July 7, 2020