Ben Zipperer, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, argues that finance’s employment slowdown has everything to do with higher interest rates starting in the second half of 2022, and little to do with AI.
“Very few employment changes right now are due to AI. Were AI driving a substantial reorganization of the labor market, we’d be seeing much faster productivity growth than the current slow rates,” Zipperer texted NOTUS.
NOTUS
August 9, 2026
Nearly all Black adults—regardless of their education level—experienced a deterioration of their financial position last year, including adults with a college education, according to SHED. The share of Black individuals with higher education doing okay or living comfortably declined by nearly seven percentage points last year, the Economic Policy Institute reported.
The Root
August 9, 2026
Some economists, such as Ben Zipperer from the Economic Policy Institute, said AI’s impact on jobs has so far been more limited than what some doomsday scenarios initially predicted.
Fortune
August 9, 2026
Sebastian Hickey, an analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, disagrees. “There continues to be an orthodox view that the minimum wage is destructive to economic outcomes, but 90 per cent of high-quality studies show that it doesn’t increase unemployment,” he said.
The Times (UK)
August 9, 2026
“People leave the labor force because they don’t see opportunities for themselves in it, and so they’re not actively looking for a job,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute.
CBS Moneywatch
August 9, 2026
The sector that lost the most jobs in July was local government education. That category is mostly K-12 public school roles, which were down almost 50,000.
Such a sharp drop could be a flaw in “seasonal adjustment,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. She said many teachers are laid off in the summer.
“At the same time, local education employment has fallen every month since March,” Gould said — as in, when school is still in session. “We know that there have been funding cuts at the Department of Education. Worse budget cuts may be coming, and that could cause even more uncertainty about hiring or keeping teachers on staff.”
Marketplace
August 9, 2026
Wage equality helps define how workers share in economic growth. When top earners pull far ahead of median workers, rising high-end pay concentrates gains among a relatively small group. According to the Economic Policy Institute, earnings inequality has “redistributed wages away from most workers” and stifled “broader-based wage growth.” However, wider wage gaps may also reflect stronger rewards for specialized skills and experience, factors that can help drive productivity and economic expansion.
AZ Big Media
August 3, 2026
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported in 2022 that the value of the federal minimum wage was at its lowest point in more than 60 years. A worker paid the minimum wage would have earned 27.4 percent less in inflation-adjusted terms compared to July 2009, according to the report.
Newsweek
August 3, 2026