Larry Mishel, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute, thinks the McKinsey report exaggerates the effects of automation, and said the U.S. is actually experiencing a very slow adoption of automation technologies.
“I believe we’re in a very slow wave of automation,” he told InsideSources. “We’re seeing a very slow growth in capitol investment, in information equipment investment, in software investment, and we some of the slowest growth of those things compared to the entire post-WWII period. If you believe automation is happening, you’d imagine it’s accompanied by more software and more computers, but we’re not getting that. The other major indicator is, in every decade there are some occupations that are growing and some that are declining. In the years since 2000, we’ve seen the slowest change of the occupation mix in maybe 150 years.”
InsideSources
July 30, 2019
The Economic Policy Institute found that, on average, college graduates earned 56 percent more than high school graduates in 2015. That was up from 51 percent in 1999 and is the largest such gap in EPI’s figures dating to 1973. EPI data found that since the Great Recession ended in 2009, college-educated workers have captured most of the new jobs, and enjoyed pay gains while non-college grads have faced dwindling job opportunities and an overall 3 percent decline in income.
Tahlequah Daily Press
July 30, 2019
Cities want to attract highly educated workers to fuel their economic growth and tax revenues. Higher levels of education tend to lead to higher salaries. And the more that graduates earn, the more tax dollars they contribute over time, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
WalletHub
July 30, 2019
But I also want to be careful to not be overly exonerating. In trade debates in the 1990s, as any Economic Policy Institute veteran will tell you, pure win-win arguments, like the one I pulled out of the 1994 Economic Report of the President, dominated among economists. EPI’s arguments that elevated the plight of those hurt by trade were treated as heresy, and not just by politicians trying to pass NAFTA, but by economists. Just ask EPIers like Rob Scott, Thea Lee, and Larry Mishel, who have the scars to prove it.
On the Economy
July 30, 2019
This isn’t just our opinion but one that is shared by policy experts on the left and right. Just last month, a dozen organizations spanning the ideological spectrum — from Tax March and the Economic Policy Institute to Americans for Prosperity and Heritage Action to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Concord Coalition — signed a letter begging Congress not to revive these tax extenders.
San Antonio Express
July 30, 2019
Through those agencies, writes Pedro Nicolaci Da Costa of the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute, “Trump is pursuing the most hostile anti-labor agenda of any modern president.”
Los Angeles Times
July 30, 2019
According to a 2015 Economic Policy Institute issue brief, the cost of childcare exceeds the cost of rent for most two-child families. Childcare is one of the biggest expenses in a family’s budget and is especially unaffordable for minimum-wage workers.
Courier-Post
July 30, 2019
Alexander’s situation is the norm, according to a new report released Tuesday from the Economic Policy Institute and UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Overall, the report finds California’s early educators are six times as likely as K–12 teachers to live in poverty.
“Parents want to have high quality for their kids but they often can’t afford it,” said Elise Gould, who co-authored the report. “And the other side of that is early educators are expected to underwrite the costs of the broken child care system with their low wages.”
KQED
July 30, 2019
Originally starting at 25 cents, the minimum wage has been raised nine times over the last 81 years, according to the national nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. While inflation, cost of living and other financial burdens have increased since the last increase in 2007, the existing minimum wage has created problems for many low-income Americans, the institute said.
The Journal Record
July 30, 2019
- Increase wages for up to 33 million Americans, according to independent economic analysis from the Economic Policy Institute
Daily Times Chronicle
July 30, 2019