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
One of America’s most powerful capitalists, Reginald Jones, who became G.E.’s chairman and C.E.O. in 1972, lived in a modest brick Colonial in Greenwich. His daughter, Grace Vineyard, told me, “He asked my mom, ‘Do you want anything more?’ And she said, ‘Why would we want anything more?’ ” Leo Hindery worked for Jones as a junior executive. “I earned fifteen thousand six hundred dollars when I got out of Stanford, and Reg’s salary was two hundred thousand dollars,” Hindery said. “G.E. was the preëminent company in America, and the C.E.O. was making twelve or thirteen times what I did.” According to the Economic Policy Institute, that ratio wasn’t unusual: in 1965, the C.E.O. of an average large public company earned about twenty times as much as a front-line worker. Today, that figure is two hundred and seventy-eight times.
The New Yorker
May 5, 2020
As of Friday, more than 30 million people have reportedly filed for unemployment in the last six weeks, according to CNET. That number could be even higher, after a survey from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that roughly 14 million additional people would have filed for unemployment if the process was easier. While there has been a spike in layoffs and furloughs, which has led to a backlog of applications, there are apps to help make the process slightly easier for those in need.
Pop Culture
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
Third, supporters argue that socialism would greatly reduce the stark inequalities of income that we find in capitalist countries like the United States, where CEOs are compensated at up to 278 times the rate of average workers, as one recent Economic Policy Institute study found. In the Mondragón cooperatives in Spain, which are owned and controlled by their workers, the ratio between highest- and lowest-paid is closer to 5:1.
Teen Vogue
May 5, 2020