“Latest JOLTS data further illustrates the catastrophic COVID-19 labor market,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Reuters
May 19, 2020
While he doesn’t attempt to describe it as a perfect solution, Economic Policy Institute Director of Research Josh Bivens has created a compelling new two-minute video that busts several myths about what would happen if the U.S. moved toward a Medicare for All-like program.
Check it out below and click here to read the Institute’s March report on the subject. At a time in which millions of Americans are losing their employment-based health care, Bivens’ argument is especially apt and timely.
The Progressive Pulse
May 19, 2020
As worrying as these blows to the country’s retirement system are, they are only the most recent assaults on an already inadequate, makeshift arrangement that’s been sliding deeper into crisis for years, if not decades. Retirement, for the majority of people, will be unattainable if nothing changes. A 2016 report from the Economic Policy Institute, for instance, found that nearly half of prime working-age households (that is, households headed by someone between the ages of 32 and 61) lacked a retirement savings account like a 401(k). According to one estimate last year from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a quarter of all Americans—including 13 percent of people over 60—had nothing saved for retirement whatsoever. And even for those with funds set aside for the so-called golden years, it’s often not enough: nearly half of respondents in a 2018 Gallup poll said they were expecting to run out of money in retirement. “If we do nothing in the next 12 years, 40% of middle-class older workers will be poor and near poor elders,” economist Teresa Ghilarducci wrote last year.
The New Republic
May 19, 2020
The non-partisan Economic Policy Institute estimated 12.7 million people lost health insurance coverage since coronavirus hit the U.S.
CBS Chicago
May 19, 2020
Landis Weaver told Waste Dive that CEO pay has risen significantly in recent years, often without a similar rise for employees. According to a 2019 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. In 2018, according to that study, the average CEO pay at the top 350 firms was around $17.2 million. That number also accounted for stock options once realized. EPI argued CEO pay is contributing to “rising inequality” and reflects the role’s ability to set pay more than any dramatic change in job performance.
Tracking trends over the past few years, EPI found CEO pay fell 0.5% between 2017 and 2018 when measuring stock options realized, but grew 9.9% if measuring through stock options granted (i.e. exercised or not). Large stock option offerings, the organization reported, made up nearly half of CEO compensation in 2018.
WasteDive
May 19, 2020
Economist Ben Zipperer of the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute said that widespread furloughing of workers in state and local governments are the beginnings of a huge contraction in the public sector.
Noozhawk
May 19, 2020
A blog earlier this week from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that state and local governments could need as much as $1 trillion in federal aid by the end of next year to keep them afloat and serving their constituents.
Additionally, with unemployment forecast to remain quite elevated – even in double digits – by the end of 2021, federal aid should continue so long as economic conditions warrant, and not be set by arbitrary timelines, EPI noted.
Teamsters
May 19, 2020
According to the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute, 29.9% of white Americans and 37% of Asian Americans can telecommute. But only 16.2% of Americans of Hispanic decent and 19.7% of black Americans can do the same.
The Journal Times
May 19, 2020
Presenting two projections from early March, Rupert reported that, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Americans would lose 19.8 million jobs by the end of June 2020. In contrast, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis believed that there would be 47 million jobs lost. This projected range of unemployment, according to Rupert, averages to somewhere between 10 to 40% — not sufficient to predict the future of the economy.
Daily Nexus
May 19, 2020
However, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that figure is far lower than the true number of Americans out of work. Nearly 14 million additional people could have filed if unemployment processes were easier, EPI calculates.
Kitsap Daily News
May 19, 2020