The sheer size of the crisis: “The number of workers who swiftly lost work in April is beyond belief”, said Nick Bunker of Indeed Hiring Lab. A recent finding by the Economic Policy Institute found that for every for every 10 people who successfully applied for unemployment, another three to four people gave up because they could not get through their state’s system to make a claim.
Click Lancashire Independent News
May 12, 2020
The shutdown of the economy from the COVID crisis has created the biggest economic calamity since the Great Depression, throwing over 30 million workers onto the unemployment rolls in just six weeks and pushing the unemployment rate toward 20 percent. For more than 40 percent of these people (12.7 million according to the Economic Policy Institute), a lost job means loss of health insurance and few resources to purchase coverage to protect their families.
Life Science Leader
May 12, 2020
The figures are stark. Inflation-adjusted pay for chief executives at the largest U.S. companies climbed 940% between 1978 and 2018, the Economic Policy Institute found, using the more conservative of two methodologies, in a report published last year. The S&P rose about 700% over the same period. Worker wages, meanwhile, increased by less than 12%.
Bloomberg
May 12, 2020
In the article “Social Distancing is a Privilege” by Charles M. Blow, Blow makes the point that, despite how the spread of COVID-19 is being portrayed in the news, poor and working-class Americans are violating shelter in place orders out of necessity. He states that the reason for this is being due to the inability, not an unwillingness to practice social distancing. Citing statistics from 2 major American cities he points out a statistical correlation between deaths from the virus and race. Though it’s addressed in passing Blow asserts an intersection at race and poverty in America. Blow also notes that in an article by the Economic Policy Institute only 9.2% of workers in the lowest quartile can work from home compared to 61.5% of those in the highest quartile. Another important factor in this, he says is not having access to private transportation which, like social distancing, is a luxury. Blow also believes there is a lack of empathy for those who have to work during a shelter in place which stems from a greater lack of empathy towards the poor in America.
The Arapahoe Pinnacle
May 12, 2020
A report from the Economic Policy Institute published last month found that for every 10 people trying to apply for unemployment, three to four couldn’t get through the system to make a claim, and another two out of 10 said the process was too complicated to try. Taken together, the study suggests, millions of unemployed people have been effectively locked out of filing claims.
The Markup
May 12, 2020
KAKE News
May 12, 2020
Day-care and preschool costs grew almost twice as fast as overall inflation between 2000 and 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. In fact, Gould found day care and preschool inflation grew 94% while overall inflation grew 48% from 2000 to 2019.
CNBC
May 12, 2020
The hiring of Patterson and Seaton is part of a trend of anti-union actions at hospitals and elsewhere, according to Gordon Lafer, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute. “They’re facing increased interest of hospital workers to organize new unions, and are using these firms to engage in aggressive intimidation tactics to stop that from happening,” Lafer said.
According to a forthcoming report from the Economic Policy Institute, the use of these anti-labor consultants is at an all-time high, and employers are spending $400 million a year on these union-busting firms. Clients often give these companies large bonuses for successfully fending off union campaigns, according to the EPI report, and the individual consultants can make hundreds of dollars an hour.
The Nation
May 12, 2020
The NPEU, which currently has 27 bargaining units at varying stages of recognition, also refocused its efforts on organizing nonprofit workers in recent years. The union, previously known only as IFPTE Local 70, was founded in 1998 to represent workers at the Economic Policy Institute. It went through a rebrand two years ago, adopting its current name and commitment to attracting more nonprofit leads.
Bloomberg
May 12, 2020
“People have internalized the idea of not panic selling,” Economic Policy Institute economist Monique Morrissey said of the prevailing stick-with-it attitude.
Bloomberg
May 12, 2020