Media clips

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• ‘Marshall Plan for Moms’ aims to aid women in pandemic

  By early 2020, women were a majority of the workforce. But a year into the pandemic, much of those gains have been erased. Almost a million mothers left the workforce last year, and economists are sounding the alarm.

  “What we have seen in this downturn has been unprecedented,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

  Newsy April 2, 2021
• Union cites outsourcing work to China as one reason Lehigh Valley Dixie cup plant will close, putting 190 out of work

  “It is a bipartisan failure of public policy dating back at least two or three decades,” said Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., a think tank that seeks to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions.

  Amid the various policies, the United States has seen a net loss of manufacturing plants every year from 1998 through 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau data included in an August report that Scott authored. Overall, the report notes, the United States has had a net loss of more than 91,000 manufacturing plants and nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs since 1997.

  Manufacturing is still a major U.S. sector, employing 12 million people, but Scott argues it could be stronger and add a significant number of jobs if the country reforms its trade policy, curbs dollar overvaluation and invests in infrastructure and clean energy.

  Allentown Morning Call April 2, 2021
• ‘It could take more than a year to dig out of the total jobs shortfall’

  The U.S. added 916,000 jobs in March, surpassing most economists’ forecast and signaling a strengthening economy, as businesses eased restrictions helped by the vaccine rollout, warmer weather and a decline in coronavirus infections. President Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion American Rescue Package, which allocated $1,400 stimulus checks to millions of households, also helped to inject more life into the economy.

  It’s the strongest job growth the country has seen since the initial recovery faded last summer, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “Even with these gains, the labor market is still down 8.4 million jobs from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. In addition, thousands of jobs would have been added each month over the last year without the pandemic recession.”

  …

  “However, today’s number is certainly a promising sign for the recovery, especially as vaccinations increase and vital provisions in the American Rescue Plan have continued to ramp up since the March reference period to today’s data,” Gould added. “The benefits of the ARP will continue to be captured in coming months.”

  MarketWatch April 2, 2021
• ‘A huge, huge toll’: For households reliant on two incomes, Covid job loss changed everything

  Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, said lower- and middle-income families alike were vulnerable to major economic instability after losses of income.

  “It’s incredibly destabilizing in the short run,” she said. “People just simply don’t have the savings to be able to weather job losses or to cut back on hours or furloughs to be able to continue paying their bills,” she said.

  Losing a home, facing declines in its credit score or the continued inability to get a job could also affect a family long after the pandemic is over, she said.

  NBC News April 2, 2021
• COVID pushed Black unemployment higher in Pa. than anywhere in the nation, report says

  Nearly one in five Black Pennsylvanians was unemployed as 2020 ended, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning D.C. think tank. That was the highest rate of unemployment for Black people in any U.S. state at the time.

  …

  Initially, the pandemic actually leveled the playing field, according to Kyle Moore, the economist focusing on race and inequality for EPI who crunched the data. Pre-pandemic unemployment was low on average, but Black workers were still about twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers.

  But as jobs plummeted in March and April 2020, that reduced inequality,

  “That ratio actually fell to an extent that Black workers were only about 20% more likely to be unemployed than white workers, at least at the beginning,” Moore said.

  In other words, when everyone was laid low, things were fairer. Once the slow economic recovery began last year, pre-existing gaps reappeared and began widening.

  Now, “unemployment rates for Black workers are falling a lot slower, similar to previous recessions,” Moore said. “That points towards more structural issues with the economy.”

  WHYY April 2, 2021
• April 2, 2021
  April 2, 2021
• Child Care in Crisis: Can Biden’s Plan Save It?

  The average cost of infant care in Ohio is $9,697 per year — or about $800 per month — according to the Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank. Rockport, which was owned by a church, cared for children as young as 6 weeks old all the way up to 6-year-old first graders. It took in only privately funded children. Full-time fees per month ran about $1,068 for a 6-week-old, which made it “not the most expensive center in the area, but not the cheapest, either,” Ms. Norris added, meaning the center wasn’t in a financially vulnerable position at the start of last year.

  The New York Times April 1, 2021
• Should Businesses ‘Hire USA’ When It Comes To Technology?

  For decades, workforce leaders, labor unions and politicians have bemoaned the loss of American factories and manufacturing jobs to lower-cost overseas markets such as China, Malaysia, Mexico and Brazil. “Buy USA” became and has remained a rally cry for those determined to revive American manufacturing and bring back the 5 million-plus jobs and 91,000 plants that have migrated offshore since 1997, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

  Forbes April 1, 2021
• Biden Seeks to Reverse Decades of Disparity in Next Economic Move

  Companies have the cash to grow, but with wealth and income skewed to the top, “there’s not enough customers to buy the new output,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  Bloomberg April 1, 2021
• Black women are filing bankruptcy amid the pandemic at alarming rates

  According to one analysis of work schedules between 2017 and 2018 by the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, only around 20% of Black workers are able to work remotely, as compared to 30% of white employees and 37% of Asian employees.

  Yahoo Finance April 1, 2021
• Obama staffers amazed at how ‘different’ Biden’s approach to stimulus is

  One is Heidi Shierholz, who served as chief economist to Obama’s secretary of Labor. “If my 2010 self could see just how different we’re handling this recovery than we handled that one — when we were just pulling our hair out, because Congress was turning towards austerity when the unemployment rate was literally over 9% — it was just an outrageous approach to the recovery at that time.”

  Shierholz, who is now director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, noted that decade saw an “incredibly weak and slow” economic recovery, which she attributed to Congress not providing the kind of fiscal relief that would have boosted aggregate demand to get the economy going, “and we are not making that mistake this time.”

  Business Insider April 1, 2021
• Biden seeks to reverse decades of disparity in next economic move

  Spending on investment outside of housing rose an average of 3.4% a year from 2000 through 2019, down from 5.2% the prior two decades and a heady 7.2% in the 1960s — when tax rates were substantially higher.

  Companies have the cash to grow, but with wealth and income skewed to the top, “there’s not enough customers to buy the new output,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  Bloomberg March 30, 2021
• For union battling Amazon, victory could bring a stalemate

  But initial collective bargaining agreements usually take years to hammer out at the negotiating table. More than half of workplaces that form unions are unable to reach an initial contract within a year, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, and 37 percent of newly formed private-sector unions still have no contract after two years.

  “It’s so difficult to hold an employer accountable,” said Celine McNicholas, director of government affairs and labor counsel at EPI. And even if the union engages in “this protracted legal battle, you know the penalty that the employer is facing is quite frankly minimal.”

  Politico March 30, 2021
• A pandemic mystery: the rise in Asian American unemployment

  A recent report by the liberal Economic Policy Institute found Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders saw the biggest increase of any group in state unemployment rates compared to white, Black and Hispanic workers from the first quarter of 2020 through the fourth quarter.

  Asian American unemployment rose by 4.6 percentage points in the states where EPI was able to estimate it, compared with 3.9 percentage points for Hispanic and Black workers and 2.3 percentage points for white workers.

  The EPI estimates are based on a survey conducted monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics but use numbers modeled at the state level by state labor departments.

  New York, Virginia, and Hawaii — which saw its crucial tourism industry hit hard by the pandemic — all saw Asian American joblessness jump the most in the EPI report. In California, the jump was the second largest of any group.

  MarketWatch March 30, 2021
• Across America: When the economy ‘bounces back,’ who actually recovers?

  Features interview with Elise Gould.

  In November 2020, the Economic Policy Institute estimated 25 million American workers are either unemployed, underemployed or have pulled out of the workforce entirely, many of whom are low-wage earners.

  Could a heated economic recovery pull these workers back into the labor force? Or will America’s most vulnerable workers be left behind?

  1A March 30, 2021
• Biden is splitting with Obama on the economy and the proof is in their stimulus plans

  “If my 2010 self could see just how different we’re handling this recovery than we handled that one — when we were just pulling our hair out, because Congress was turning towards austerity when the unemployment rate was literally over 9% — it was just an outrageous approach to the recovery at that time,” Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist to Obama’s secretary of Labor, told Insider. “And so this is just incredibly different.”

  Business Insider March 29, 2021
• Union cites outsourcing work to China as one reason Lehigh Valley Dixie cup plant will close, putting 190 out of work

  “It is a bipartisan failure of public policy dating back at least two or three decades,” said Robert E. Scott, a senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., a think tank that seeks to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions.

  Amid the various policies, the United States has seen a net loss of manufacturing plants every year from 1998 through 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau data included in an August report that Scott authored. Overall, the report notes, the United States has had a net loss of more than 91,000 manufacturing plants and nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs since 1997.

  Manufacturing is still a major U.S. sector, employing 12 million people, but Scott argues it could be stronger and add a significant number of jobs if the country reforms its trade policy, curbs dollar overvaluation and invests in infrastructure and clean energy.

  Allentown Morning Call March 29, 2021
• ‘A huge, huge toll’: For households reliant on two incomes, Covid job loss changed everything

  Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, said lower- and middle-income families alike were vulnerable to major economic instability after losses of income.

  “It’s incredibly destabilizing in the short run,” she said. “People just simply don’t have the savings to be able to weather job losses or to cut back on hours or furloughs to be able to continue paying their bills,” she said.

  Losing a home, facing declines in its credit score or the continued inability to get a job could also affect a family long after the pandemic is over, she said.

  NBC News March 29, 2021
• COVID pushed Black unemployment higher in Pa. than anywhere in the nation, report says

  Nearly one in five Black Pennsylvanians was unemployed as 2020 ended, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning D.C. think tank. That was the highest rate of unemployment for Black people in any U.S. state at the time.

  …

  Initially, the pandemic actually leveled the playing field, according to Kyle Moore, the economist focusing on race and inequality for EPI who crunched the data. Pre-pandemic unemployment was low on average, but Black workers were still about twice as likely to be unemployed as white workers.

  But as jobs plummeted in March and April 2020, that reduced inequality,

  “That ratio actually fell to an extent that Black workers were only about 20% more likely to be unemployed than white workers, at least at the beginning,” Moore said.

  In other words, when everyone was laid low, things were fairer. Once the slow economic recovery began last year, pre-existing gaps reappeared and began widening.

  Now, “unemployment rates for Black workers are falling a lot slower, similar to previous recessions,” Moore said. “That points towards more structural issues with the economy.”

  WHYY March 29, 2021
• Amazon drivers say peeing in bottles is an ‘inhumane’ yet common part of the job, despite the company denying it happens

  Celine McNicholas, the director of government affairs at the Economic Policy Institute, said Amazon was denying the “pee bottle thing” as part of a public-relations push to be seen as a progressive employer, while it attempts to shut down a union drive in Alabama.

  “I think it is probably the only play that they have — to say this is not the reality,” McNicholas said. “Because the reality is shameful and disgusting.”

  Business Insider March 26, 2021
• Government Layoffs Pummeled Black Workers. The American Rescue Plan Could Bring Those Jobs Back.

  “It was a place that was available to them when the door to the private sector was slammed shut,” Naomi Walker, the director of a network of progressive research and advocacy organizations for the Economic Policy Institute, explained. “[So] it has a huge, huge impact on them whenever the public sector experiences the large cuts we’re seeing now.”

  The Huffington Post March 26, 2021
• On Equal Pay Day, Here’s What 3 Black Women Want You To Remember

  And it’s not just wage disparities that Black women have to face at work. They are less likely than white workers to have access to paid leave and according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost of childcare for two children can be upwards of $20,000 a year, which puts many Black and Latina mothers in an impossible position.

  Essence March 26, 2021
• People with college degrees are more likely to have a COVID-19 vaccination — here’s why

  In total 48 million Americans are essential workers, making up roughly 43% of the U.S. workforce, the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank, found. Some 70% of essential workers don’t have a college degree, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.

  MarketWatch March 26, 2021
• Tariffs key to managing global steel production, report says

  Rolling back national security tariffs on steel would spell disaster for U.S. producers while allowing adversaries with fewer pollution controls to take over market share, according to an Economic Policy Institute report released Wednesday.

  The 25% levy on steel imports imposed by the Trump administration in 2018 successfully curbed the
  amount of steel entering the U.S. from abroad and boosted domestic production until the coronavirus
  pandemic hit, according to Adam Hersh and Robert Scott, co-authors of the report “Why Global Steel
  Surpluses Warrant U.S. Section 232 Import Measures.”

  However, the unilateral action alone has done little to slow the growth of steel production capacity
  around the world, as countries such as China, Iran and Russia have continued upping their game,
  according to the report published by Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.

  “If the Biden-Harris administration backtracks on this policy now, the U.S. steel industry is going to
  be in even worse shape than before the measures were put in place,” Hersh said during a conference
  panel hosted online on Wednesday.

  “Excess capacity didn’t go away with the pandemic, in fact more has been put in place,” he added.

  Law360 March 26, 2021
• Why increasing the minimum wage could help close the gender wage gap

  Economists agree that raising the minimum wage will have an impact on closing the pay gap. One in four working women—including 34 percent of Black working women and 31 percent of Latina workers—will get a raise if the minimum wage rises to $15 per hour by 2025, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis.

  Ms. Magazine March 26, 2021
• Government layoffs pummeled Black workers. The American Rescue Plan could bring those jobs back.

  Black government employees experience less wage inequality than those in the private sector, and more career stability. Public sector opportunities are especially critical for Black women. A whopping 48% of all working Black women are employed in the industries — education, health services and public administration — that compose most of the public sector.

  “It was a place that was available to them when the door to the private sector was slammed shut,” Naomi Walker, the director of a network of progressive research and advocacy organizations for the Economic Policy Institute, explained. “[So] it has a huge, huge impact on them whenever the public sector experiences the large cuts we’re seeing now.”

  Huffpost March 26, 2021
• Biden’s task: Overhaul the economy, as fast as possible

  Liberal economists stress that if he wants to truly upgrade the economy, Mr. Biden needs both.

  “This is actually a really exciting and important moment, in terms of the compelling argument for expanding our concept of infrastructure to include human capital — the idea that strengthening both the work force and the access around care is crucial,” said Thea Lee, the president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington.

  “There is an old-fashioned way of thinking,” she said, “which is the only thing that counts as an investment in the future is tangible, a structure that you can pick up or kick.”

  New York Times March 26, 2021
• Amazon is battling a union push in Alabama. Here’s why many companies oppose labor organizers.

  According to a 2020 report by the Economic Policy Institute, union members earn an average of 11.2% more than their non-unionized peers.

  Markets Insider March 26, 2021
• Bankruptcies are way down during the pandemic. Here’s why

  However, the damage was mostly felt at the lower end of the labor market, as 80% of 9.6 million net jobs lost were occupied by workers in the bottom quartile of wage earners, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.

  Los Angeles Times March 26, 2021
• Biden’s Task: Overhaul the Economy, as Fast as Possible

  “This is actually a really exciting and important moment, in terms of the compelling argument for expanding our concept of infrastructure to include human capital — the idea that strengthening both the work force and the access around care is crucial,” said Thea Lee, the president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington.

  The New York Times March 26, 2021