Media clips

• Older Workers Returning to Office Fear Both Virus and Job Loss

  AARP research has found that older workers are at risk of layoffs in times of economic uncertainty and have more difficulty getting rehired at previous wages when displaced. Meanwhile, the Economic Policy Institute found that nearly three-fourths of workers age 65 and older—or over 5 million workers—can’t telecommute and may already be exposing themselves to the virus.

  Bloomberg May 27, 2020
• Women suffering steeper job losses from COVID-19
  • But Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said there’s more to the story. “Even in the male-dominated industries, women are losing their jobs at greater rates,” she said.
  The Hill May 27, 2020
• Paid sick leave in focus amid COVID-19 crisis, but impact may not last

  A 2017 paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute noted that, at that time, “87 percent of private-sector workers in the top 10 percent of wages have the ability to earn paid sick days, compared with only 27 percent of private-sector workers in the bottom 10 percent.”

  Detroit Free Press May 27, 2020
• Coronavirus Devastates Black New Orleans: ‘This Is Bigger Than Katrina’

  Since the middle of March, more than 630,000 people have filed for unemployment insurance. That is 30% of the state’s labor force—one of the worst rates in the nation, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.

  The Wall Street Journal May 27, 2020
• Homegrown produce wanted for community “Grow-a-Row” food donation program in Teton Valley

  The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified economic hardship in our community. Even prior to the health crisis and perhaps more today, the U.S. Economic Policy Institute named Teton County Idaho and Wyoming as the region with the largest economic inequality in the nation. With rising costs of living and over 40 percent of Teton County, Idaho working households living with less than the necessary income required to fund the five basic household necessities (housing, child care, food, transportation and health care), our local Extension office and Master Gardeners are working with nonprofit partners to tackle the issue of food access and hunger.

  Teton Valley News May 27, 2020
• Study projects homelessness will rise 45% in just one year due to coronavirus unemployment

  O’Flaherty’s model relied on homelessness data in an earlier study published by the Journal of Housing Economics in 2017, which found that every 1% increase to the unemployment rate corresponded with the homelessness rate rising by 0.65 per 10,000 people. The analysis used unemployment projections from the Economic Policy Institute, which predicted a 15.6% rate by July, and the Congressional Budget Office, which similarly projected a 16% unemployment rate by the summer.

  Salon May 27, 2020
• Coronavirus is killing more men. But the lockdown is disastrous for women and their rights
  Data so far is showing that the economic consequences of the pandemic are also harsher for women. One example: 55% of the Americans who have lost their jobs in March and April were women, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
  CNN May 27, 2020
• 5 charts show how the coronavirus crisis has dwarfed the Great Recession in just 2 months

  Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the speed of the US recovery depended on how much stimulus was put into the economy by the government.

  “That is a choice,” Shierholz said. “One of the things that made the recovery from the Great Recession so bad, so weak, is that we state and local governments didn’t get the aid that they needed to not have to make substantial cuts that hamstrung the economy.”

  Shierholz said the federal government could keep the same thing from happening this time by making sure unemployed people would have benefits and businesses would have help to stay afloat even if they aren’t fully open.

  If the government does those things, “when the economy does reopen, there’ll be demand and confidence in the economy to get a quick bounce back,” Shierholz said.

  Business Insider May 27, 2020
• We need strong policy now to avert a depression, this week in the war on workers

  We know that unemployment is sky-high, but that’s not the end of the story. The Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz sounds a warning that, if lawmakers don’t act, we’re looking at a depression.

  “If the federal government provides sufficient aid during this crisis so that people’s income doesn’t drop dramatically (even if they have been unable to work), so that businesses stay afloat (even if they have been totally or significantly shuttered), and so that state and local governments whose tax revenues are plummeting are not forced to make drastic cuts that will hamstring the economy, then those furloughed workers could get back to their prior jobs and the recovery could be rapid because confidence and demand would be relatively high,” she writes. “But if the federal government doesn’t act, then those furloughs will turn into permanent layoffs and the country will face an extended period of high unemployment that will do sweeping and unrelenting damage to the economy—and the people and businesses in it.”

  Daily Kos May 27, 2020
• 4 Questions Workers Have About Reopening In A Pandemic

  Though some states have laws making employers provide paid sick and family leave, FFCRA is the first-ever federal mandate. However, it leaves out a large portion of the workforce — the law doesn’t cover about 6.8 million workers at large firms who don’t get paid leave, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of DOL data.

  Law 360 May 27, 2020