“The whole pandemic, I think, has laid bare all of the inadequacies of the US social safety net,” John Schmitt, the vice-president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said. “A very basic thing every other advanced economy in the world guarantees workers is at least a minimum amount of paid sick days. The US does not have at the national level any laws like that.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that there won’t be significant support when the dust settles for state, local and federal legislation to address that incredibly longstanding policy failure,” he said.
There are two other areas where Schmitt predicted there would be strong demand for lasting change. One is unemployment insurance, currently a meagre patchwork of different state systems subject to minimum national standards.
The Guardian
April 29, 2020
“The usual relationship that we see between the national unemployment rate and the black unemployment rate is typically really close to a two to one,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy.
“Whatever is being projected for the national unemployment rate, in most instances, we expect to see something close to twice that for black Americans.”
The Guardian
April 28, 2020
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found in an online poll that for every 10 people who have successfully filed unemployment claims, three or four people have been unable to register and another two people have not tried to apply at a time of acute economic crisis.
Official US statistics show that 26.5 million people have applied for unemployment benefits since March 15, wiping out all of the jobs gained during the longest employment boom in American history.
EPI’s survey indicates that an additional 8.9 million to 13.9 million people have been shut out of the system, according to Ben Zipperer, the study’s lead author.
‘This study validates the anecdotes and news reports we’re seeing about people having trouble filing for benefits they need and deserve,’ Zipperer said.
Reuters
April 28, 2020
2 Economic Policy Institute, “The growing trade deficit with China has led to a loss of 3.4 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2017” (23 October 2018), online: <www.epi.org/press/the-growing-trade-deficit-with-china-has-led-to-a-loss-of-3-4- million-u-s-jobs-between-2001-and-2017/>.
Centre for International Governance Innovation
April 28, 2020
According to a staff memo to council, a report from the Economic Policy Institute estimates that for every 100 direct construction industry jobs, 226 indirect jobs — suppliers, goods and services — are created.
“Direct and indirect employment and spending will infuse cash into the regional economy, add value to real property in the city, and contribute to regional recovery,” the memo reads.
The Aspen Times
April 28, 2020
In Western and Northern European countries, for example, governments have taken aggressive action — often at the urging of the Left and labor unions — to protect workers’ jobs during the crisis so they’ll be waiting for them when it’s safe to return to business as usual, and providing relief adequate relief in the interim. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute call this approach “deep-freezing the economy,” the idea being that it can be thawed out and quickly restored when the pandemic is over. Yes, it costs money, but so does an interminable economic slump.
Jacobin
April 28, 2020
Local labor experts, meanwhile, say many current mid-Hudson openings pay less than $20 an hour (often just $12 to $16), well below the $44,000 to $59,000 annually that the Economic Policy Institute estimates a typical Hudson Valley resident needs to survive.
Times Herald-Record
April 28, 2020
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute showed that from 2017 to 2018, 19.7% of black or African American workers could work from home compared to 29.9% of white workers and 37% of Asian workers who could do so. When a worker holds an “essential” job and is unable to work from home, they become more likely to contract the virus and fall ill.
The Daily Wildcat
April 28, 2020
A 2011 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that a 40% increase in farmworker pay, bringing annual salaries from $10,000 to $14,000 a year, would only increase consumer spending a mere $16 a year. The author, Philip Martin, Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California-Davis, concluded, “In short, increasing farmworker wages to raise farmworkers out of poverty poses little threat to consumer pocketbooks or U.S. exports.”
Common Dreams
April 28, 2020
In addition to sickness and death, the pandemic has caused many non-essential businesses to shut down. The devastating result is that since mid-March, more than 15 million American lost their jobs, according to a report by USA Today. If that trend continues, the unemployment rate could climb to nearly 16 percent, according to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
TSD Memphis
April 28, 2020