The Economic Policy Institute estimates 12.7 million Americans have lost their health insurance since the COVID-19 crisis began. Of the 1.6 million jobs lost in Florida over that span, 687,286 were jobs that provided health coverage, according to EPI data, some 43 percent of the total.
TC Palm
May 6, 2020
“Increasingly, people with a B.A. [degree] are being threatened by these things too,” Angus Deaton said in a May 4 interview by the Economic Policy Institute.
[Includes event live stream and Neil Munro tweet about EPI report.]
Breitbart
May 6, 2020
In 1994, public school teachers earned about 1.8% less per week than workers in other professions that required a college degree.
Business Insider
May 5, 2020
A survey by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, examined the problem. It found that for every 10 people who were able to successfully claim unemployment benefits, three or four others tried but were frustrated by the system and two others did not try because they found the system too difficult.
Omaha World-Herald
May 5, 2020
Nevada’s job market has so far been one of the hardest hit in the country. And according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, the state now has 25% of its workforce unemployed.
KUNR
May 5, 2020
The most recent estimates, offered by both the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, project a shortfall for the states alone of about $500 billion from now through June 2021, with localities losing an additional $250 billion. Even those numbers are based on projections of unemployment levels that increasingly look far too optimistic. With more than 30 million already filing for unemployment, we are nearing the record for joblessness set in the Great Depression. James Knightley, chief economist of ING, notes that by the end of May, fewer than one in two working-age Americans will be drawing a paycheck. If McConnell were to block aid to the states and localities, wholesale layoffs of teachers, police, public hospital staff, and caregivers for the poor and vulnerable would add hundreds of thousands to the number of unemployed.
The Nation
May 5, 2020
The Check’s in The Mail: I thought it was pretty sad over the past few weeks when news started to trickle out that big companies were taking loans intended, in spirit and practice, for small businesses. But, then, this week came along. The Economic Policy Institute came out with the following conclusion based on a March/April national survey: Only about half of the “potential” unemployment insurance applicants “are actually receiving benefits,” concluded EPI, a left of center think tank. There are a lot of reasons for this: like overwhelmed state unemployment systems. In addition, some states like Florida (shocker) have made it more difficult to draw benefits over the years, according to The New York Times. In other unemployment news, some state officials are already worried that the jobless won’t return to work fast enough—and may strike back. The Washington Post reports that states like Oklahoma and Iowa are threatening to strip benefits from workers who are afraid to return to potentially unsafe jobs. “If there is a claimant out there that says ‘you know what, I can make more money sitting at home,’ ” one Oklahoma government big was quoted in the Post. “then, if the employer will contact us, that’s a refusal of civil work and we’ll cut off their benefits.” Nice. Thank goodness farm state officials are fighting for our right to eat pork chops.
Newsweek
May 5, 2020
1. You may regret staying home later
If you do choose to sit tight at home until July, you won’t be the only one hitting the job market this summer. The Economic Policy Institute predicts a nationwide unemployment rate of 15.6% in July of this year. To put that in perspective, the highest unemployment rate experienced during the Great Recession was 10% in October 2009.
The Motley Fool
May 5, 2020
A recent analysis by Elise Gould and Ben Zipperer of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that, from March 15 to April 18, between 8.9 million and 13.9 million more people would have filed for unemployment benefits had the application process been easier.
The Washington Post
May 5, 2020
A survey conducted in mid-April by the Economic Policy Institute found that for every 10 people who successfully filed a claim for unemployment insurance, three to four tried to file but were unable to get through the system. In addition, two more didn’t try to apply for UI at all because it was too difficult.
“These findings imply the official count of unemployment insurance claims likely drastically understates the extent of employment reductions and the need for economic relief during the coronavirus crisis,” wrote Ben Zipperer and Elise Gould of the EPI.
Accounting for the workers who were unable to apply for unemployment, or tried but didn’t get through, the EPI survey found that only about half of potential UI applicants are actually receiving benefits.
Applying those findings to the five weeks of unemployment claims from March 15 to April 18, the EPI estimates an additional 8.9 million to 13.9 million could have filed for claims if the process had been easier.
Business Insider
May 5, 2020