More than one in five workers are currently on unemployment benefits or are waiting to get on, according to the Economic Policy Institute, as the U.S. economy continues to be ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, those who are unemployed qualify for their standard state benefit and an additional $600 per week from the federal government. But without action from Congress, that extra weekly benefit expires July 31, even as over 19 million people in the U.S. remain unemployed.
CNBC
June 26, 2020
White workers, on average, are paid more than Black and Latinx workers at almost every education level, according to a 2018 report by the Economic Policy Institute. Whites with an advanced degree received an hourly wage of $44.46, while Latinx earned $38.47 and Blacks earned $36.23.
CNBC
June 26, 2020
This means consumers, the main driver of economic growth in America, will remain constrained in their spending. That’s why “cutting off a policy support that helps households maintain spending is a terrible idea, both for these households’ welfare and for macroeconomic stabilization,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN
June 26, 2020
Economist Josh Bivens at the progressive-leaning think-tank Economic Policy Institute seized upon today’s data to argue for an extension of the federal top-up to unemployment benefits. “The economy’s growth will continue to be tightly constrained by insufficient demand for goods and services, and cutting off a policy support that helps households maintain spending is a terrible idea,” Bivens wrote in a blog post.
“We estimate that extending the $600 UI [unemployment insurance] benefits through the middle of 2021 would provide an average quarterly boost to gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.7% and employment of 5.1 million workers,” he added.
Al Jazeera
June 26, 2020
There’s also implications for the health care industry, which as a whole is about 18% of the nation’s gross domestic product. The Economic Policy Institute estimated a loss of more than 1 million jobs if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
Marketplace
June 26, 2020
Economic Policy Institute (EPI) research director Josh Bivens, in an analysis of new personal income data released Friday by the Commerce Department, said not extending the enhanced unemployment insurance (UI) past July 31 “would be both cruel and bad economics.”
“The economy’s growth will continue to be tightly constrained by insufficient demand for goods and services, and cutting off a policy support that helps households maintain spending is a terrible idea,” Bivens wrote, “both for these households’ welfare and for macroeconomic stabilization.”
Common Dreams
June 26, 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.
Going forward, Bivens predicts that extending the $600 unemployment benefits through the middle of next year would provide an average GDP quarterly boost of 3.7% and employment of 5.1 million workers.
CNBC
June 26, 2020
According to Valerie Wilson from the Economic Policy Institute, in 2018, a median Black worker only earned about 75 percent of what a White person does (USD 14.92 per hour to USD 19.79), and The Economist reported that in 2019 mean household wealth was USD 138,000 for Blacks, and USD 933,700 for Whites. While more than 72 percent of Whites own homes usually in nice neighbourhoods, only 42 percent of Blacks do so usually in shabbier environments. Unemployment rates are typically twice that of Whites.
The Daily Star
June 26, 2020
“Without a doubt, Indian nationals are likely to be the most impacted group when it comes to H-1B,” said Daniel Costa, director of immigration and law policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.
Politico
June 26, 2020