“Employers are not doing a lot of hiring right now. Workers are not quitting. There’s not a lot of churn in the labor market so it’s harder for workers to break in,” said Elise Gould, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
In other words, low-hire, low-fire.
Marketplace
January 12, 2026
Economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute took a look at the jobs numbers and concluded the US labor market now is far weaker than the one Biden left Trump nearly one year ago.
“The slowdown in job growth this year is stark compared to 2024,” Gould wrote on Bluesky. “The average monthly gain was only 49,000 in 2025 compared to 168,000 in 2024. Over the last three months, average job growth was actually negative, meaning there are fewer jobs now than in September.”
Common Dreams
January 12, 2026
That’s part of a nationwide trend. In the same time period displayed by those maps, the share of income earned by the top 10 percent has increased from 33 percent to nearly 50 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Chicago Magazine
January 12, 2026
In November 2025, Black unemployment reached 8.3 percent, almost doubling the national rate of 4.6 percent. Contributing to this data, the Trump Administration’s cut to federal jobs impacted Black workers in every state according to findings from the Economic Policy Institute.
Essence
January 12, 2026
The average cost of child care is $15,394 a year in New York, the sixth-most expensive state in the nation, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Center Square
January 12, 2026
A total of 19 states increased their minimums in 2026, each of them landing between $10 an hour and $18 an hour. Nationwide, at least 30 states as well as Washington, D.C., have minimum wages that exceed the federal minimum, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
HR Dive
January 12, 2026
The Trump economy is hammering black workers particularly hard:
Among demographic groups, the worst deterioration in the job market has been for Black workers, said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy.
Dakota Free Press
January 12, 2026
- The Economic Policy Institute looks at the new “Trump Account” program that the administration claims will fight child poverty. Instead, EPI finds that “Trump’s voluntary savings accounts are poised to widen wealth disparities for generations. The more resource-constrained families will be unable to keep up with the contributions of their more affluent peers—broadening inequities in wealth even further.”
The Pitch from Civic Ventures
January 12, 2026
The Big Number
The number of states that increased their minimum wages starting this month, providing a pay bump to an estimated 8.3 million U.S. workers. For the first time, more workers now live in states that pay $15 or higher per hour than those that have kept the $7.25 minimum, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
WSJ Careers & Leadership newsletter
January 12, 2026