Unemployment payments aren’t simply replacing lost income. They also serve as economic stimulus. Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, points out that the $600 in additional unemployment benefits that workers have been getting actually supports millions of jobs. “Killing the $600 payment entirely would cost the U.S. 5.1 million jobs,” she says. People who are getting relief payments, Shierholz explains, spend it on basics like food and shelter. By contrast, people with higher incomes are now saving more.
Inc.
July 30, 2020
“‘We are just furloughing people until we can reopen.’ That was what a lot of those early [layoffs] looked like,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, who noted that many of these temporary job losses have now become permanent.
VOX
July 28, 2020
In April, more than half of the adult African American population was unemployed, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). While the overall unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent in June, it continued to climb for Black men reaching 16.3 percent, according to EPI.
Truthout
July 28, 2020
Dr. Emma Garcia has questions about whether private schools can fulfill the promises they’re making to parents during the pandemic. An economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, Garcia doubts that benefits such as more space for social distancing and low student-teacher ratios in private schools can be maintained with a surge in enrollments. Private schools tell DCist they are operating under-capacity when it comes to physical space and are having no difficulties hiring additional staff.
DCist
July 28, 2020
A separate analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute projected that reducing federal unemployment benefits by $400 would cost the US 3.4 million jobs and shrink the economy by 2.5% over the next year.
Salon
July 28, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that a cut in the $600 a week extra unemployment insurance to $200 a week will reduce aggregate demand and cut the number of jobs that were projected to be created. It expects a loss of about 2.5% growth and 3.4 mln fewer jobs. After this week’s FOMC meeting and the first look at Q2 GDP, the US July employment report is due at the end of next week.
Nasdaq
July 28, 2020
She points out that in the 2008 recession, for example, there were lots of jobs lost in areas like construction and manufacturing, which are typically male-dominated. But in this recession, the jobs were lost in fields like leisure and hospitality, retail and the public sector. “A disproportionate number of women lost their jobs,” says Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute—and Black and Latinx women were particularly impacted. (Other differences between this recession and past recessions are outlined here.)
Real Simple
July 28, 2020
While broadly supported by Democrats and national union leadership, these free trade agreements have been devastating for workers. As described by the Economic Policy Institute, “USMCA will in no way offset or reverse the massive devastation caused by the original NAFTA agreement. Nor is the deal a ‘model for future trade agreements’.”
Workday Minnesota
July 28, 2020
The Trump Republican schemes talked about today would leave millions of people in the lurch, including, the Economic Policy Institute calculates, 5.1 million people who would be thrown out on the streets—some of them anew–as economic demand slides and workers are let go when the checks end and spending by recipients stop. The Census Bureau reports recipients spend 70% of each check on household expenses.
People's Weekly World
July 28, 2020