Throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic workers have been less likely than workers of any other race or ethnicity to be able to work from home, according to the Economic Policy Institute, in part because the former are overrepresented in jobs the government has deemed essential.
The Huffington Post
May 5, 2020
The number of unemployed people could be even higher than the numbers reflect. Research by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that from March 15 to April 18, another 8.9 to 13.9 million more people would have applied for unemployment if the process had been easier or if labor agency phone lines and websites had not been perpetually tied up. It’s unclear how many of those millions have managed since April 18 to successfully apply for benefits.
Next City
May 5, 2020
According to a recent blog post from the Economic Policy Institute, based on already existing predicted budget shortfalls and recent data projections, state and local governments will need another stimulus package of $500 billion.
Business Insider
May 5, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the Labor Department, said she sees the current frustrations as the continuation of a 40-year-trend of workers losing bargaining power. She said many were right to feel underpaid before the pandemic began; now the risk makes their earnings feel like an insult.
“We had an extremely unbalanced system before, where the growth of the economy has been captured largely by the people at the top, and not broadly shared, for decades,” said Shierholz, now the policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “Policymakers should absolutely be stepping in and making sure these workers have hazard pay.”
The Huffington Post
May 5, 2020
As of late April 2020, that 25% unemployment rate was already a fact. The official government data indicated 26.5m workers had filed for unemployment benefits. That’s about 16.5% of the 165 million US civilian labor force. Bank forecasts are 40 million jobless on benefits by the end of May. But respected research sources, like the Economic Policy Institute, recently estimated that as many as 13.9m more are actually out of work but have not yet been able to successfully file for unemployment benefits. So the 40 million jobless may already be here. And that’s roughly equivalent to a 25% unemployment rate. In other words, in just a couple months the US economy has collapsed to such an extent that the jobless ranks are at a level that took four years to attain during the great depression of the 1930s!
Counter Punch
May 5, 2020
Another privilege denied disproportionally to Black people is the ability to work remotely to protect themselves, their families and their communities from the spread of COVID-19. According to the Economic Policy Institute, only 1 in 5 Black employees are able to telework. Those who are keeping America running right now — those on the front lines of this pandemic such as grocery store clerks, home health aides and warehouse employees — are more likely to be Black. What choice do these folks have but to show up for work? Having to make the crucial decision of risking your life while living paycheck to paycheck is largely falling on Black Americans.
The DC Line
May 5, 2020
The big squeeze: City and state workers are getting axed from payrolls as governments tighten spending, at the cost of education, sanitation, and public health and safety, Tony Romm writes for The Washington Post. The National League of Cities estimates that between 300,000 and one million public sector workers could soon be out of a job or furloughed without pay, affecting all aspects of municipal life. The Post’s Andrew Van Dam has analyzed unemployment claims from states that break them down by industry to show how the crisis has affected different industries in waves: first, service industries that rely on face-to-face contact, then manufacturing and construction work that relies on group labor, and then trade and trucking and all of the administrative work that goes into making other parts of the economy run properly. The two most recent waves of unemployment have impacted white collar and public sector workers. The public sector used to keep the economy going when times were tough, Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, tells Van Dam, but no longer. “Over the last couple of recessions, the public sector hasn’t played that traditional role,” Zipperer said. “As a result, we’ve seen steeper recessions and slower recoveries.”
Fair Warning
May 5, 2020