Nearly five million workers aged 65 and older are not able to telecommute, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many jobs, especially those in the service sector, can’t be done remotely. In fact, only one in three workers have the flexibility to work from home. Those who are at greatest risk don’t always have the option to stay home and would be better protected if we all did our part by taking the precautions recommended by experts. This includes the simple act of wearing a face covering.
Popsugar
July 24, 2020
“Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there,” Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist at the Labor Department who now heads the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told CNBC.
Salon
July 24, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute has highlighted that unions increase productivity through a variety of channels. They reduce turnover and, hence, firm-specific skills are retained. Moreover, the lower turnover makes it economically rational for employers to provide more training to union-represented employees, increasing employee skills and productivity further.[15]
United Steelworkers
July 24, 2020
Make no mistake, the economy needs help. On Thursday, new weekly unemployment claims data provided more bad news, rising for the first time in almost four months and indicating a softening job market. Of course, claims all along have been showing that the economy is in deep trouble. Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute reminds us this is “the 18th week in a row that unemployment claims have been more than twice the worst week of the Great Recession.”
Forbes
July 24, 2020
- Nina Banks, “Black women’s labor market history reveals deep-seated race and gender discrimination,” Economic Policy Institute, February 19, 2019, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/black-womens-labor-market-history-reveals-deep-seated-race-and-gender-discrimination/.
- Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz, “Not everybody can work from home: Black and Hispanic workers are much less likely to be able to telework,” Economic Policy Institute, March 19, 2020, available at https://www.epi.org/blog/black-and-hispanic-workers-are-much-less-likely-to-be-able-to-work-from-home/.
Center for American Progress
July 24, 2020
“Each dollar of unemployment insurance boosts economy-wide spending by $2,” said Lily Roberts, director of economic mobility at the Center for American Progress. “The Economic Policy Institute estimates that letting the $600 unemployment insurance extension expire would by itself lead to more job loss than happened in the recessions of the early 1990s or early 2000s.”
CNET
July 24, 2020
One of the biggest reasons African Americans are more affected by the coronavirus than other races is because a large portion of African Americans are essential workers and are at a higher risk of being exposed to the virus, Besser said. Blacks are overrepresented in essential front-line positions in grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, and health care and child services, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Philadelphia Tribune
July 24, 2020
As the coronavirus spreads and the economy recloses, unemployment remains at historic highs, according to Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
MultiBriefs: Exclusive
July 24, 2020
These data points aren’t just isolated indicators of racial inequality, but part of a much larger problem. “It literally shows up in everything that we could look at,” says Valerie Wilson, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who recently co-published a report with Elise Gould on how the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affected Black workers in the US due to racism.
Quartz
July 24, 2020