‘The more time goes by, summing up initial claims gets a little dicey,’ said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy for the Economic Policy Institute.
Daily Mail
June 5, 2020
At 20.8%, the black poverty rate is 2.5 times the white rate. The wealth gap between blacks and whites has also worsened. In 2016 the net worth of white families, at $171,000, was almost 10 times greater than that of the typical black household. The Economic Policy Institute reports that between 2000 and 2018 the gap between black and white incomes worsened at every level.
The Wall Street Journal
June 5, 2020
The economic fallout from the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities in the U.S. Minority groups such as black Americans are among the most exposed to unemployment through mass layoffs in the hospitality and manufacturing industries, according to the Economic Policy Institute. They are also overrepresented in front-line jobs where exposure to infection is high, and tend to live in denser, multi-generation communities where the spread of the coronavirus has been fiercer, according to EPI. Underlying health and economic conditions all contribute to increased vulnerability during the pandemic. Black Americans make up just over 12% of the U.S. population but account for 22.4% of Covid-19 deaths, EPI said.
The Wall Street Journal
June 5, 2020
Even without a global pandemic, J-1 visitors can have a hard time finding help, said Daniel Costa of the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of a 2019 report on a J-1 summer work-and-travel program for college students.
ProPublica
June 5, 2020
As the economic fallout from the coronavirus continues, the Labor Department released its latest figures on Thursday showing that 1.9 million people filed for jobless benefits last week. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “Close to one in four workers are either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to receive them.” Meanwhile thousands of workers whose jobs were reinstated are caught between risking their health in an unsafe work environment or losing a paycheck. In many states, employers are simply firing their workers and reporting them to authorities so that they lose their unemployment benefits.
Rising Up with Sonali
June 5, 2020
At least one survey from the Economic Policy Institute found that millions of Americans gave up trying to seek benefits or didn’t even attempt to due to states’ overwhelmed and antiquated unemployment systems.
News 5 Cleveland
June 5, 2020
About 21.5 million Americans were still collecting unemployment benefits, known as continuing claims, for the week ending May 23, according to the Labor Department. But an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute finds that looking at all unemployment programs, 37.2 million people are either receiving benefits or have applied for benefits and waiting to hear if they will receive them. That’s nearly a quarter of the American workforce.
CBS News
June 5, 2020
According to a 2018 Economic Policy Institute report, “The share of African Americans in prison or jail almost tripled between 1968 and 2016 and is currently more than six times the white incarceration rate.”
90.3 WPLN News
June 5, 2020