Over the past month, nearly 22 million workers filed unemployment claims, and nearly all of the jobs gained in the last five years have been lost. In addition, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 19.8 million workers will lose their jobs or be furloughed by summer, and that the national unemployment rate will be well above 15 percent by July.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
April 27, 2020
The Alabama Hospitality Association has estimated that some 225,000 hotel and restaurant workers will be laid off during the COVID-19 crisis. Last month, the Economic Policy Institute’s conservative projections estimated that nearly 200,000 people could lose their jobs in Alabama, and the reality has already far exceeded their projections.
Salud America
April 27, 2020
I asked Jeff Faux, a founder of the Economic Policy Institute, about my numbers. ‘“At least 20 percent”’ is certainly reasonable, indisputable, I think,” Faux replied. “Given those who don’t qualify for UI [unemployment insurance] or otherwise don’t get picked up, it is a most probably an undercount.”
Elise Gould, another EPI economist, noted that “the latest UI claims data from today, these job losses translate into an unemployment rate of 18.3%. But that doesn’t tell the whole story” which you can read here.
Raw Story
April 27, 2020
Weekly claims numbers have come down over the past three weeks, falling from a peak of 6.9 million in the last week in March. Even so, claims continue in the millions every week — a stark contrast to the pre-pandemic strength in the job market. Just a couple months ago, weekly claims were hovering in the low 200,000s. That puts recent weekly claims north of 20 times the pre-coronavirus level, and more than five-times of the worst five-week stretch during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, according to Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
CNN
April 27, 2020
“It’s going to put many workers in a difficult situation who don’t feel safe going back,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, which researches and advocates for worker protections.
Bloomberg Law
April 27, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute has also proposed a more generous plan for a fourth round of stimulus funding, including $500 billion for states, more extended unemployment insurance, another direct payment to households, and deficit-financed infrastructure investment.
“How policymakers respond now will determine the level of pain working families experience and the speed at which the economy can get back on track after the shutdown period is over. The relief and recovery packages passed since the crisis began included many good measures, but they are still too little and some provisions in these packages represent policy missteps,” EPI analysts wrote in a policy brief.
WJLA
April 27, 2020
According to Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and former chief economist at the Labor Department in the Obama Administration, one in seven US workers has applied for unemployment insurance.
El Diario
April 27, 2020
- When lower-wage service workers and gig workers get sick, staying home becomes a financial hardship. According to the Economic Policy Institute, prior to this crisis less than a third of Americans in the bottom 10% of wage earners had access to paid sick leave, compared to 93% among the top 10% of wage earners. Now, many will receive emergency coronavirus-related coverage under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). FFCRA provides temporary sick leave to workers at companies under 500 employees, with possible exemptions for companies under 50 employees. Companies with over 500 employees vary in whether they previously provided sick leave to lower-wage service workers and whether they are adjusting their policies in response to the pandemic. Additionally, some cities have sick leave requirements for workers in their jurisdiction, and some—such as Los Angeles—have expanded these policies in response to COVID-19.
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
April 27, 2020
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), says that while college graduates of recent years were seeing an improvement in the job market, their economic outlook had never fully recovered to a level that previous generations enjoyed.
“That benchmark of getting back to 2007 was actually a low bar for where we wanted to get back to,” Gould said. “I think we’re still a ways away from trying to get back to the kind of economy we had in 2000, and that should be the target in this recovery.”
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
April 27, 2020
“All else equal, job losses of this magnitude would translate into an unemployment rate of 18.3%”, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a note Thursday.
Newburgh Gazette
April 27, 2020