The president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Heidi Shierholz, said that Trump’s actions were “a move straight out of an autocratic playbook.”
“To fire her over an official data release — simply because the numbers do not serve a particular political narrative — is a deeply dangerous attack on the foundations of a functioning democracy,” she said in a statement.
Truthout
August 13, 2025
“Removing millions of workers overnight isn’t just bad immigration policy, it’s economic suicide,” said Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.
South Florida Media
August 13, 2025
“The best way that workers are able to get wage increases is to switch jobs, and you’re not seeing that as much,” said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Wall Street Journal
August 13, 2025
“More data and more timely data is better than less data and less-timely data,” Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, told Daily Beast.
Daily Beast
August 13, 2025
Economists say Black Americans are among the ethnic groups affected first during an economic downturn. Among the U.S. states that have the highest Black unemployment rate are Washington, D.C. (10.3 percent), Michigan (10 percent), Nevada (8 percent) and California (7.7 percent), according to the Economic Policy Institute. In Illinois, the unemployment rate among Blacks was 7.7 percent.
Chicago Crusader
August 13, 2025
A new report from economists at the Economic Policy Institute, however, finds the opposite to be true and that the net impact of mass deportation on employment – both for immigrants and U.S. born workers – is decidedly negative.
Indeed, the administration’s goal of deporting one-million people per year will lead to a loss of nearly six million jobs over the coming years – more than forty percent of them held by U.S. born workers.
NC Newsline
August 13, 2025
In reality, research has continually found that conservative policies depress the economy. This includes numerous Trump administration policies like the GOP’s marquee budget bill, passed last month, which the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has estimated will destroy 6 million jobs just through its mass deportation agenda alone — without even mentioning other job losses like the devastating impacts to the health care sector.
“Trump’s announcement makes it clear that he expects the BLS commissioner to only release data that shows the economy is booming — even if it means the data must be manipulated or changed by political appointees,” said EPI’s chief economist Josh Bivens in a statement on Tuesday.
Truthout
August 13, 2025
Boston Globe
August 13, 2025
This might have been billed as an effort to impose “efficiency” on the system. But “a more accurate description,” writes Monique Morrissey of the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute, “is sabotage.”
LA Times
August 13, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) raised concerns that the law will incentivize many to work as much overtime as possible to gain the extra income, including evenings and weekends — habits “associated with a range of negative impacts on physical and mental health, well-being, and productivity.”
In addition, those unable to work overtime for personal or health reasons will lose out on the benefits. The EPI called the law “another gimmick that does more harm than good” and suggested that offering workers raises so they don’t have to work the extra hours would prove a better option.
MoneyWise
August 13, 2025