Not enough aid has been targeted to working people in the four coronavirus relief bills totaling $2.7 trillion so far, says the Economic Policy Institute. It calls for unemployment benefits to be expanded to new workers, including young people finishing high school and college students, as well as undocumented workers. It says the beefed-up benefits should continue well beyond July 31 or any other arbitrary cut-off date, citing projections that the jobless rate could average 16% in the third quarter.
Sacramento News & Review
April 30, 2020
Although economists can track layoffs via new unemployment claims, tracking the uninsured in real time is trickier, as each worker can carry insurance for multiple family members, and some are able to shift to other sources of coverage. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that 9.2 million workers were at risk of losing their health insurance coverage.
California Healthline
April 30, 2020
If anything, according to many economists, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn’t even try because they found the process too formidable.
“The problem is even bigger than the data suggest,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the institute, a left-leaning research group. “We’re undercounting the economic pain.”
The New York Times
April 30, 2020
As businesses scramble to stem massive losses amid the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment rolls are exploding. “The number of jobs lost in five weeks is roughly the equivalent of the working populations of 25 states,” the New York Times says. It’s also “over five times the worst five-week stretch of the Great Recession,” according to the Economic Policy Institute. One analyst predicts that less than half of working-age Americans will be receiving wages in May.
Newsweek
April 30, 2020
A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn’t even try because the process was too formidable.
“The problem is even bigger than the data suggest,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the institute, a left-leaning research group. “We’re undercounting the economic pain.”
The New York Times
April 30, 2020
The tech industry has been the golden goose in our economy, generating our best-paid jobs. Politicians often urge young Americans to study STEM, and public schools have greatly expanded STEM course work. But the tech industry currently accounts for only about 10 percent of the economy; 71 percent of STEM workers in Silicon Valley are foreign born according to a report based on 2016 Census data, with many arriving on guest worker visas. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, only 50 percent of U.S. STEM college grads eventually land a STEM job.
Bangor Daily News
April 30, 2020
100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit digital newsroom, has pointed to the risk of COVID-19 closing rural hospitals as they halt nonemergency procedures and take on new costs to prepare for the pandemic. The progressive Economic Policy Institute has called on states to do more to prepare, including expanding Medicaid. With the November election approaching and every state legislative seat open, the question will be whether Republicans are willing to compromise, either ahead of the election or afterwards.
The American Prospect
April 30, 2020
A survey by the Economic Policy Institute released on Tuesday indicates that for every 10 people who applied for the subsidy, there are 3 or 4 who tried in vain and two more who did not even choose to do it because they found it difficult to do so.
La Raza
April 30, 2020
“What this did instead was just mostly cut the number of people who can come to reunify with family, and including the … parents of adult U.S. citizens,” says Daniel Costa, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute. Trump has “taken action to reduce the ways that immigrants can come to the U.S. where they have rights and a path to permanent residence and citizenship, but he hasn’t touched the visa categories where there’s tons of abuses.” Indeed, Trump has increased access to low-wage immigrant labor every year he has been in office, while sharply restricting the avenues available to immigrants for acquiring American citizenship.
The Atlantic
April 30, 2020