But the freakout over a worker shortage is premature, said Elise Gould, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “What’s surprising is not that employers may have to start increasing wages now as the labor market keeps tightening, but rather that they haven’t felt that pressure yet, despite an unemployment rate hovering around 4.0 percent,” Gould said in a blog post on Friday. (Elise quoted throughout)
The Huffington Post
July 9, 2018
No evidence of a skills shortage. Some recent reports have suggested that businesses can’t find qualified workers at the wages they’re offering — but this report “did not have any evidence to back up those claims,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “Not only did payroll employment increase by 213,000 — evidence that employers are finding workers — but wage growth held steady at a disappointing 2.7 percent — evidence that employers are not having to raise wages to attract and retain workers.” “As the labor market tightens we should see more businesses raisings wages, offering training, and hiring workers from all corners of the labor market,” she added.
PBS Newshour
July 9, 2018
First, even though the expansion is long in the tooth (since 1990, the average expansion has lasted eight years), there are still groups of people who have been left behind. For example, mid-level wage growth isn’t quite what we would expect given all these labor shortages we keep hearing about. As economist Elise Gould points out, anecdotes of widespread labor shortages are contradicted by the lack of much wage acceleration. True, employers almost always complain about labor shortages, but if firms have been struggling to attract more workers, why aren’t they raising wages more quickly to draw more people into the labor force or away from their competitors?
The Washington Post
July 9, 2018
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta noted in a written statement that “Americans rejoining the workforce represented their largest share of the unemployed since before the recession.” The unemployment rate is “increasing for positive reasons as more workers entered the labor force,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, agreed in a written statement.
Politico Pro
July 9, 2018
Wages continued their modest rise, increasing 2.7 percent from the year before. “What’s surprising is not that employers may have to start increasing wages now as the labor market keeps tightening, but rather that they haven’t felt that pressure yet,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a blog post.
CBS Moneywatch
July 9, 2018
We turn to Elise Gould, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. “While an increase in the unemployment rate is generally considered to be a negative sign for the economy,” she said in a statement, “a rise accompanied by an increase in labor force entrants can be taken as an indication that more would-be workers are hopeful about their job prospects and have begun actively seeking work.” (Elise quoted throughout)
MultiBriefs
July 9, 2018
And even progressive economists like Josh Bivens aren’t sure whether a job guarantee is a good idea, mainly because they wonder whether the government can figure out how to manage large numbers of workers hired under the program and are uncertain about the cost. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty much with Bivens here, although I think he may be overstating the difficulties a bit; the goal of the jobs guarantee is laudable, but there are better ways to get there.
The New York Times
July 9, 2018
A federal jobs guarantee is more problematic, and a number of progressive economists with significant platforms have argued against it: Josh Bivens, Dean Baker, Larry Summers. (Yes, Larry Summers: whatever you think of his role in the Clinton and Obama administrations, he’s a daring, unconventional thinker when not in office, with a strongly progressive lean.) And I myself don’t think it’s the best way to deal with the problem of low pay and inadequate employment; like Bivens and his colleagues at EPI, I’d go for a more targeted set of policies.
The New York Times
July 9, 2018
Despite Wisconsin’s low unemployment rate, the economic insecurity that Mr. Walker and Mr. Trump exploited still exists. New research by David Cooper, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, has shown that much of Wisconsin’s job growth is in low-wage industries, which offer few, if any, benefits. “When you strip away their benefits and people see their standard of living shrinking, well, there’s anger there,” Mr. Schultz, the former state senator, told me.
The New York Times
July 9, 2018
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing employees to opt out of paying fees to the unions who represent them will impact public-sector unions across the country, potentially weakening their collective bargaining power. But the 5-4 ruling in the case, known as Janus v. AFSCME, could have an especially bad impact on African-American women, according to an analysis done by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “The groups that most benefit from collective bargaining are those who are most vulnerable in the labor market,” says Economic Policy Institute Vice President John Schmitt. “The challenge for black women in the labor market is that they face double discrimination based on race and based on gender.” (John/EPI cited throughout)
Governing
July 9, 2018