“Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Labor Department.
CNBC
July 20, 2020
“Letting this extra $600 in unemployment insurance benefit expire at the end of July would by itself cause more job loss than was seen in either of the recessions of the early 1990s or early 2000s,” writes Josh Bivens, director of research for the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC
July 20, 2020
Factoring in the PUA filings, Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz notes this was the 17th consecutive week that more than twice as many Americans have filed for unemployment insurance as did during the Great Recession’s worst week. Shierholz argues that the 1.3 million claims figure is misleading in part because it ignores the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims.
The Week
July 20, 2020
“What we’re seeing is a real crisis for older workers,” says Monique Morrissey, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. She says she’d like to see more states adopt Texas’ stance of allowing older people to refuse work during the pandemic without fear of losing their unemployment benefits.
SHRM
July 20, 2020
“It’s well known that the typical worker’s wage has not grown that much in the last 40 years,” said Larry Mishel, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit funded mostly by foundations and some labor unions. “In contrast, CEO compensation has grown quite a lot.”
Houston Chronicle
July 20, 2020
Some researchers have disputed that continuing the assistance would harm the economy or dampen job growth. Josh Bivens, director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, estimates that ending the $600 per week payment outright would “severely” reduce GDP as it would reduce spending in the households most affected by the economic turmoil.
He said enhanced unemployment insurance, combined with hazard pay for essential workers and strengthened job safety standards, which Democrats also want in the next bill, are “good economics and good health policy” as many Americans “face the choice of unsafe work or poverty.”
CNBC
July 20, 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 20, 2020
But nearly half of the U.S. population is still jobless, and millions will remain jobless for the foreseeable future. There are 14 million more unemployed people than there are jobs, per the Economic Policy Institute.
Axios
July 20, 2020
As Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute points out, “Cutting off the $600 cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren’t there.”
Politicus USA
July 20, 2020
Black people make up about one in nine workers overall, but about one in six essential workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, due to their disproportionate presence in grocery stores, public transit, health care, social services, and other industries.
The Counter
July 20, 2020