Rising unemployment is also magnifying labor inequality. Research is finding that people of color, women, people with disabilities, hourly and younger workers are disproportionately being displaced from their jobs. Many of those groups were still recovering from the 2007 Great Recession, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
HR Dive
May 15, 2020
But that would require a more complex calculation by state unemployment insurance agencies — one they might be unwilling or unable to implement. “In a perfect world, I would prefer to give people a percentage of their income,”said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “But we might not be set up to do it.” Many state unemployment insurance agencies are still using decades-old computer systems, for example, presenting potential technical challenges if Congress asked them to change the benefits formula. And Daniel Zeitlin, the director of policy at Washington state’s unemployment office, said that while he didn’t think it was impossible, any change would be difficult for a system already under tremendous stress.
FiveThirtyEight
May 15, 2020
More than 36 million people have reportedly filed for unemployment in the US over the past few months due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. A survey from the Economic Policy Institute published last month estimates that an additional 14 million people would’ve filed if the process were easier.
CNET
May 15, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, said the impending crisis of mass unemployment among state and local governments is preventable if the federal government steps in. State and local governments have balanced budget requirements, restrictions the federal government doesn’t have.
“The fact that we’re not doing it now is just unconscionable,” Sheirholz said. “It’s a huge unforced error.”
NJ.com
May 15, 2020
These days, more and more purchases are made online. The Economic Policy Institute has predicted that COVID-19 could potentially eliminate three million jobs from the US economy before the end of summer. Payne understands that times may be tough at the moment, but the community will persevere like it always does.
Salem Times Register
May 15, 2020
States face budget shortfalls as high as 10 percent in fiscal 2020 and 25 percent in fiscal 2021, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Josh Bivens of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute wrote in a Monday blog post that combined state revenue shortfalls could reach $1 trillion by the end of 2021.
Politico
May 15, 2020
This didn’t use to matter because, until 2000, state and local revenue were relatively insulated from recessions so they didn’t have to slash services and payrolls. But since then, revenues have been much more sensitive to the business cycle, according to the Economic Policy Institute, likely due to increased reliance on volatile income and capital gains taxes. As revenue plummeted in the 2007-09 recession, state and local government payrolls shrank by more than 500,000 over four years, a major headwind to the recovery.
The Wall Street Journal
May 15, 2020
Progressive analysts at the Economic Policy Institute predict jobless figures will only get worse, especially for low-wage workers, women workers, and workers of color. “The May jobs number is going to be grim,” EPI Policy Director Heidi Shierholz predicted.
People's Weekly World
May 15, 2020
In just two weeks, the number of Americans estimated to have lost their health insurance as a result of the coronavirus pandemic grew by nearly four million, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
EPI estimates that 16.2 million workers overall have lost the insurance they carried through their employer since March, when the coronavirus forced industries across the country to shut down, laying off and furloughing tens of millions.
The think tank previously estimated in research published at the end of April that 12.7 million people had lost their employer-based insurance.
Common Dreams
May 15, 2020