Media clips
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The stereotype of Sun Valley, in and outside of Idaho, is a town dominated by a bunch of rich, white, out-of-state skiers with second homes. But Blaine County is far more than Sun Valley (one of four “major” small towns in the area), and the lived reality of its full-time residents tells a story that will sound familiar to people living in far more dense urban areas. Idaho, as a whole, is 93% white. Yet 48% of school-age children in the Blaine County school district, according to the school board chair, are Latino. Almost half of students in the district qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The county seat of Hailey, population 8,282, ranked ninth in the nation for most severe income inequality in a 2018 study from the Economic Policy Institute.
Buzzfeed May 5, 2020 -
Las páginas web y oficinas estatales se encuentran colapsadas por la cantidad de personas que intentan hacer uso de su subsidio. Una interesante encuesta del Economic Policy Institute dió a conocer que por cada 10 personas que solicitaron el subsidio hay tres o cuatro que lo intentaron infructuosamente y otras dos que ni siquiera lo intentaron por la dificultad del proceso. Encuéntralo en este enlace de Univisión
Ahoramismo May 5, 2020 -
A key reason for that emerges from a survey by the Economic Policy Institute. It found that up to 12 million more people have lost jobs but haven’t filed a claim for benefits, either because they couldn’t get through to their state’s overwhelmed system or they didn’t try, perhaps because it was too difficult.
“These findings imply the official count of unemployment insurance claims likely drastically understates the extent of employment reductions,” wrote Ben Zipperer and Elise Gould, economists at EPI.
Richmond Times-Dispatch May 5, 2020 -
But the numbers are likely much higher. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that beyond those who filed successful claims, roughly half more were unsuccessful or did not try because of the formidable barriers in the country’s unemployment systems.
The Astorian May 5, 2020 -
Since mass closures of public areas and businesses were implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the last weeks, more than 30.3 million people have filed for joblessness aid, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the economy losing more than 700,000 jobs in just one month — adding up to be one in six American workers. That number could be even more damning than initial statistics let on, with a survey by the Economic Policy Institute finding that around 12 million more people have lost jobs but haven’t filed a claim because couldn’t get through their state’s overwhelmed system or they didn’t try. Pop Culture May 5, 2020 -
“Basically we passed one really big bill, it lasted through the end of 2010 and then it kind of turned off,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “By that point, Congress had changed hands and everything shifted toward more austerity.”
Both Bivens and Drezner say that the stimulus packages already passed aren’t enough. “Given the shocking size of the contraction we’re facing, it’s going to be too small,” Bivens said, citing new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office predicting that unemployment could remain in the double digits in 2021. “The CBO projections look pretty solid to me and they’re kind of horrifying.”
Bivens predicts that the “real test” for Congress will come after the worst of the pandemic is over, when people are returning to work and the economy is slowly reopening, but unemployment is still rampant and millions continue to struggle. “I think almost everyone on Capitol Hill is like, Yes, during a recession, you need to do a big stimulus package, you need to run up the debt,” he said. “But then just as soon as that recession is over they want to get back to worrying about deficits and debt.”
VICE May 5, 2020 -
A survey by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute estimated that 12 million people had tried and failed to claim unemployment insurance, or didn’t even try because it seemed difficult. That would swell the true number of unemployed people close to 40 million, said Elise Gould, an economist at the institute.
“The official numbers underestimate the amount of economic devastation that’s happening,” Gould said. The official total was 28 million jobless claims as of last week. Millions more were still waiting to file claims, she said.
States need more help to process claims and provide emergency help like food, she said, and the federal government needs to provide more money to states, because states are generally bound by balanced-budget rules.
“These people are having trouble paying the May rent, the mortgage and all their bills,” Gould said. “States need to be providing additional aid, but because of balanced-budget amendments they’ll have to cut their budgets, which is the last thing we need.”
Pew Charitable Trust May 5, 2020 -
New research from the Economic Policy Institute reveals that the number of Americans who are losing their employer-based health insurance is growing rapidly, with more than 30 million people laid off or furloughed in the last six weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.
EPI estimates that 12.7 million of the people who have lost their jobs since early March have lost their health insurance.
“The linkage between specific jobs and the availability of health insurance is a prime source of inefficiency and inequity in the U.S. health system,” wrote EPI research director Josh Bivens and economist Ben Zipperer. “It is especially terrifying for workers to lose their health insurance as a result of, and during, an ongoing pandemic.”
EPI released its new research shortly after government watchdog Public Citizen tweeted sarcastically that the U.S. has a “normal and fine healthcare system,” sharing a news story about health insurer Cigna’s skyrocketing profits for the first months of 2020 alongside EPI’s earlier headline from just two weeks ago when the think tank estimated 9.2 million Americans had lost their employer-based health insurance.
Nation of Change May 5, 2020 -
The third installment of the Reilly Center’s Communications & COVID-19 virtual event series, An Unequal Relationship: Race and COVID-19, will investigate the racial disparities accompanying the COVID-19 outbreak. Louisiana Budget Project’s Director of Public Affairs and Outreach Davante Lewis will lead the conversation.The complete list of panelists features:
- Davante Lewis, Director of Public Affairs and Outreach, Louisiana Budget Project, Moderator
- Jarvis DeBerry, Former Deputy Opinions Editor, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
- Rebekah Gee, M.D., MPH, CEO Health Care Services, LSU Health
- Denese Shervington M.D., MPH, Humanistic Integrative Psychiatry, President and CEO, Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, UNO Research and Technology Foundation, Inc.
- Jenny Sullivan, Director of Housing and Health Integration, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Jhacova Williams, Ph.D., Economist for Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE)
Registration for An Unequal Relationship: Race and COVID-19 and each of the events in the Communications & COVID-19 series can be found online. Registrants will receive a Zoom meeting link and information on how to join. The events will also be recorded and uploaded to the Manship School’s YouTube channel.
Louisiana State University Manship School of Communication May 5, 2020 -
“That means many workers who lose their job as a result of the virus will be counted as dropping out of the labor force instead of as unemployed,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Labor Department, and now head of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Reuters May 5, 2020