Media clips

• More than 42 million Americans now lost jobs during COVID-19 crisis and less than HALF of all African Americans were working in April

  ‘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
• How Social And Economic Disparities Have Worsened Pandemic’s Effects On Black Workers

  NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to Valerie Wilson from the Economic Policy Institute about why the pandemic has disproportionately affected African-American workers and families.

  The coronavirus pandemic has pushed unemployment to its highest level in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Last week, another 1.87 million people filed for unemployment. That brings the total claims this spring to over 42 million. And it has disproportionately affected black workers and families. Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Institute says, in a recent report, that this is because of historic and ongoing social and economic injustices. And she joins us now. Welcome.

  NPR June 5, 2020
• The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968

  “This idea that we’re all in this together is sort of a false statement to make,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy. “Black workers are the least likely to be able to work from home.”

  On average, black households had $8,762 in cash or equivalent liquid assets compared with $49,529 for white households, according to government data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute. Black households with a high school degree or less had, on average, only $5,289 in liquid assets.

  The Washington Post June 4, 2020
• Black unemployment 2020: African Americans bear brunt of economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus

  “The pandemic and related job losses have been especially devastating for black households,” the Economic Policy Institute said in a recent report. “They have historically suffered from higher unemployment rates, lower wages, lower incomes, and much less savings to fall back on, as well as significantly higher poverty rates than their white counterparts.”

  “It certainly is the case that we were finally seeing the recovery from the Great Recession hit more and more people,” says Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “Historically disadvantaged groups were finally beginning to see lower unemployment rates.”

  USA Today June 4, 2020
• Nearly 43 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits during the pandemic
  And that complicates the math when trying to determine how many people need unemployment aid, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, in a thread of tweets.
  CNN June 4, 2020
• 1/3 of labor force now jobless as pandemic unemployment climbs

  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1.877 million people filed new claims for state jobless benefits in the week ending May 30. But another three million-plus newly jobless workers were forced to seek only new federal jobless benefits available from the $2.2 trillion stimulus law Congress passed in March, Economic Policy Institute Policy Director Heidi Shierholz pointed out.

  People's Weekly World June 4, 2020
• What’s Behind an Eye-Popping Drop in Education Jobs, and What’s Next?

  So when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics last month reported that there was a precipitous drop in local education jobs in April, it got plenty of attention from economists, mainstream publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and, most recently, the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank that focuses on the impact that the economy has on low and middle-income workers.

  Education Week June 4, 2020
• Is a second stimulus check coming? The update on another round of payments for $1,200

  What proponents of the Heroes Act say: Since the middle of March, more than 38 million US workers who have lost their jobs have filed for unemployment. The actual number of those unemployed could be millions higher, according to the Economic Policy Institute, because many people who are eligible were unable to file a jobless claim. With the job losses, the nation’s unemployment rate reached 17.2% (PDF), according to the US Department of Labor. Newly unemployed people, along with others taking an economic hit from the pandemic, would benefit from having more money to spend right now.

  CNET June 4, 2020
• Jobs regained after coronavirus pandemic won’t make up for massive job losses, economists warn

  Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Labor Department, suggested that more government aid will be necessary to keep consumers and businesses afloat so that many laid-off workers will have jobs to return to.

  “Those jobs are not going to come back if the federal government doesn’t do the things it needs to do to stimulate the economy, so that the demand and confidence is going to be there, so that those businesses will need to call workers back,” Shierholz said.

  Fox News June 4, 2020
• ‘No matter how well you speak, or how educated you are, my blackness will always define me.’ Black graduates on racism in America

  Since black workers are already more likely to be unemployed than white workers, even with the same levels of education, they typically suffer disproportionately during an economic downturn, said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center, labor-focused think tank. We’re already seeing evidence of that trend playing out this time around.

  An EPI analysis of government data from February to April found that the black unemployment rate rose from 5.8% to 16.7% during that period, while the white unemployment rate jumped from 3.1% to 14.2%. Economic downturns are a period where the power of employers typically increases, allowing more room for discrimination in hiring, Gould said.

  For young black workers, this dynamic is exacerbated by their thin job history. “If you’re in an economy where employers can choose who they want, they can choose to discriminate, they can choose to have workers who have more experience,” she said.

  MarketWatch June 4, 2020