Demand for farm labor has risen significantly in recent years, with the shortage compounded by fewer younger people wanting to work in agriculture, among other factors. In fiscal year 2005, the United States certified 48,336 jobs that could accept H-2A workers, according to federal data. By 2018, data showed that figure had quintupled to 242,762 jobs, which ran an average of about 5 1/2 months. Of that, the U.S. issued 196,409 H-2A visas. Historically, the bulk of H-2A certified jobs have been in Florida, North Carolina, New York, Georgia, Washington, and California. The coronavirus pandemic could cut the number of H-2A workers by up to 60,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit think tank in Washington. Put in context, the U.S. Department of State granted more than 204,801 H-2A visas in fiscal year 2019, with each job lasting an average of six months. The workforce fulfilled around 79% of the labor demand that year, according to federal data.
Pro Farmer
April 20, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic could cut the number of H-2A workers by up to 60,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington. Put in context, the U.S. Department of State granted more than 204,801 H-2A visas in fiscal year 2019, with each job lasting an average of six months. The workforce fulfilled around 79% of the labor demand that year, according to federal data.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
April 20, 2020
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that 9.2 million Americans likely lost their health insurance coverage in the past month as unemployment surged nationwide. As most Americans access their health care through employers, losing a job often means losing insurance coverage as well. In the past four weeks, some 22 million workers have applied for unemployment, with analysts projecting that the unemployment rate now stands at about 15 percent.
Newsweek
April 20, 2020
Companies around the state are still making decisions about whether to lay employees off, Turner said. One recent report by the Economic Policy Institute estimated the state could lose about 110,000 jobs due to the virus over the next several months.
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
April 20, 2020
In 2017, the US households in the top 1% of income-earners made more than 25 times what families in the other 99% did, according to a paper from the Economic Policy Institute. This glaring inequality confirmed my determination to devote the rest of my life and greatest part of my wealth to philanthropy.
Business Insider
April 20, 2020
The U.S. is home to about 2.2 million domestic workers, including home-care aides, child-care workers and house cleaners, according to an analysis of government data by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Disproportionate shares of these workers are black and Hispanic, and they are more likely than workers in other occupations to be foreign-born. Nearly 92% are women.
MarketWatch
April 20, 2020
If the economy is substantially reopened without adequate testing, said Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute, the most vulnerable would include “low-wage workers, women, people of color, immigrants, and the elderly.” They are “concentrated in the riskiest jobs, with the least financial cushion, and the least likely to have employer-provided benefits or protections,” she said.
The Washington Post
April 20, 2020
An article published by The Daily Times points out that most small businesses have only 15 to 30 days of cash on hand. As a likely result, according to CNBC, “the disruption to businesses from coronavirus could lead to 15,000 permanent retail store closures in 2020, with the Economic Policy Institute predicting that the disease outbreak could potentially wipe out three million jobs from the U.S. economy before this summer.”
Credit Union National Association
April 20, 2020
- Income inequality: The same period that has seen a four-fold increase in U.S. military interventions abroad has also seen tremendous growth in income inequality. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, between 1978 and 2014 CEO pay increased ninety times more than average workers’ salaries. Thus, whereas the average worker experienced a 10.9 percent increase in wages during this 34-year period, average CEO pay rose a remarkable 997 percent during the same period.
The National Interest
April 20, 2020
Of course, it is not just healthcare workers who are on the front lines of the crisis – grocery store workers, domestic workers, delivery people and transit workers are all still working outside their homes, and many are women and people of colour, said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive-leaning US think tank.
“Some of the front line workers are going to be disproportionately Black and brown people – people working in grocery stores, transportation, public transit, lots of different sectors – and they’re continuing to work,” Gould told Al Jazeera. “At the same time, we know that Hispanic workers and Black workers are much less likely to be able to telework, so that tells you about the kind of jobs that they have and their ability to weather this storm from a health security standpoint or a financial security standpoint.”
And while unemployment has soared across the United States in every demographic, “initial data suggests that women are more likely to lose their job at this time, and that’s somewhat due to the types of jobs that are being lost,” which include jobs in the service and care sectors, Gould said.
Al Jazeera News
April 20, 2020