“In April, the unemployment rate dropped below 4.0 percent for the first time since 2000, but for the ‘wrong’ reasons — because people left the labor force, not because they found work,” wrote researchers at the Economic Policy Institute. “Meanwhile, in May, more people found jobs at the same time that the labor force participation rate ticked down slightly. About two-thirds of the drop in the unemployment rate in May was because workers found jobs, while about one-third of the drop was from people leaving the labor force.” … In the Economic Policy Institute’s comprehensive analysis of the reality of poverty in America, onthe 50th anniversary of the Poor People’s Campaign, the non-profit found that, among adults 18 to 64 years old, poverty rose from 9.0 percent in 1968 to 11.6 percent in 2016. EPI notes that 63 percent of this cohort is “working and 45.5 percent are working full time;” and that their data makes “it clear that millions of people who are active participants in the labor market are unable to make ends meet, either due to insufficient hours or low wages.”
Salon
June 5, 2018
President Trump was so delighted by the May jobs report that he tipped off investors by tweeting while the information was still embargoed. The news — more than 220,000 new jobs, unemployment down to 3.8 percent, the lowest in 18 years — was undoubtedly strong. The Economic Policy Institute hailed “the economy’s steady march towards full employment,” noting that most of the drop in unemployment came from workers finding new jobs and only about one-third from workers leaving the workforce. Wages are finally beginning to budge, though the growth rates still don’t keep up with the rising cost of basics such as health care and education. The last time the U.S. economy enjoyed across the board wage growth was in 2000, when the economy also neared full employment levels.
The Washington Post
June 5, 2018
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute: “In a full employment economy, we would see wages rising much faster—closer to 3.5 percent and above—to claw back the losses to labor share in the aftermath of the Great Recession. While economists and commentators have myriad explanations for why wage growth is so sluggish, it seems obvious that, with many workers still unemployed or sitting on the sidelines, employers just don’t have any incentive to raise wages.”
U.S. News
June 5, 2018
It’s normal for black unemployment rates to bounce around month-to-month owing to the sheer difference in working populations between whites and blacks, said Janelle Jones, an economic analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. There are 121 million white workers and 19 million black workers, according to the data. “That’s why it’s so important to disaggregate by race. There are significantly less black workers than white workers,” Jones said. Still, Jones said May’s numbers aren’t just statistical fluff. The black unemployment rate has been steadily dropping since 2010, when at one point the unemployment rates for black men were in the double digits in every age category. Today, Jones said, black workers are still recovering. “Historically disadvantaged workers are left at the mercy of the labor market,” she said. “When things take a downturn, it’s worse for black workers, and when things start to pick up, it takes longer for black workers to really feel that recovery.”
NPR
June 4, 2018
“We’re finally seeing steady growth in blue collar work, but the problem is it’s not accompanied by strong wage growth,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Labor Department.
The Washington Post
June 4, 2018
All these factors mean it’s probably best to take the black unemployment rate numbers with a grain of salt. As Janelle Jones, an analyst with the Economic Policy Institute told me in January, “We don’t get to set a very low bar for economic success for black workers and then applaud ourselves when we reach it.”
VOX
June 4, 2018
Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) added a caveat to an otherwise solid job report, warning a large percentage of the drop in unemployment is for “the wrong reasons.” In the past two months, about 85 percent of the drop in unemployment was the result of people leaving the labor force, including a large number of Baby Boomers entering retirement. Only about 15 percent actually found jobs, according to Gould.
WJLA
June 4, 2018
“Upwards of 70 percent of the newly employed are coming from out of the labor force as opposed to those ‘actively’ looking for work,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “Employers and workers alike seem to recognize the slack out there and workers still do not have sufficient leverage to bid up their wages.”
Reuters
June 4, 2018
As a result, some “two-thirds of the drop in the unemployment rate in May was because workers found jobs, while about one-third of the drop was from people leaving the labor force,” the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute noted.
The Epoch Times
June 4, 2018
This decline has had two big effects — one economic and one political — about which Democrats should to care. First, lower rates of unionization have translated into lower wages for workers, both union and non-union alike. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, the wages of non-union men would be five percent higher if union levels had stayed consistent since 1979. Fully one-third of the growth in wage inequality among men and one-fifth of that among women since the 1970s can be explained by declining unionization rates. (The gender difference is due to the fact that women have never reached the same levels of unionization as men.) There’s plenty of other research that comes to similar conclusions.
NBC News
June 4, 2018