With more than 15 million Americans out of work, the nation’s overall unemployment could hit nearly 16 percent by July, according to estimates released by the Economic Policy Institute. That rate would be greater than any other jobless figures recorded since the 1930s.
The Center Square
May 15, 2020
More than 36 million people have reportedly filed for unemployment in the last two months. A survey from the Economic Policy Institute last month estimated that figure is lower than the true number of Americans out of work: Millions more people could have filed if unemployment processes were easier.
CNET
May 15, 2020
This reinforces a message we covered in NPQ last week, when we observed, citing Economic Policy Institute research, that “there is a strong class dimension to the unemployment wave” on top of its highly inequitable of gender and racial impacts. Citing federal unemployment data, we further noted, “Of the 19.5 million jobs lost in the private sector last month, fully 18.1 million of them were classified as production and non-supervisory workers. Even amidst a massive surge of unemployment, unemployment among managers is presently 6.2 percent (with professional workers at 8.8 percent and all other job categories 12.7 percent or higher).”
Nonprofit Quarterly
May 15, 2020
“If an employer was paying hazard pay and stopped providing it, there’s very little an employee could do,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, recently told Marketplace’s Kristin Schwab.
Marketplace
May 15, 2020
24/7 Wall St., a financial website, created an index of the pandemic’s ongoing impact on each state’s economy. The index is based on the number of COVID-19 cases per 10,000 residents; the share of employment lost in industries deemed high risk by Moody’s Analytics; new unemployment claims since mid-March; and projected unemployment rates by state for July 2020 from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank.
Houma Today
May 15, 2020
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