Media clips
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It’s been a slow climb, but after a decade of steady recovery, young graduates’ economic prospects overall are the brightest since 2007. Wages have been rising since 2012, and recently surpassed the benchmark set in 2000. According to the Economic Policy Institute, challenges still remain. Remember that the economy at the beginning of the recession was in freefall, and nothing compared to more prosperous times in the ’90s and early 2000s. Elevated levels of underemployment remain. That is a count of those who are unemployed as well as part-timers who want full-time work, and even those workers who want a job and have looked for work in the last year, but stopped looking for work in the last month. This rate among new college grads is 11.1% this year, as compared with 9.4% in 2007 and 6.9% in 2000.
Fast Company May 14, 2018 -
Report: Class of 2018 Has Better Job Prospects than Classes of 2009-2017, but Still Faces Challenges
With graduation looming, some soon-to-be college graduates are still looking for jobs. A new report might give them a better idea of where they stand—and can provide guidance for colleges trying to support them. The report, published by the Economic Policy Institute, examines the job outcomes for those between the ages of 21 and 24 with a bachelor’s degree. It found that those in the Class of 2018 have better job prospects than the classes of 2009-2017. However, in comparison to students who graduated into the 2000 job market, the Class of 2018 still has economic challenges. Among those challenges? Racial disparity for wages. (whole story)
EdSurge May 14, 2018 -
According to an Economic Policy Institute Report, the unemployment rate for recent graduates is currently 5.3%, which is lower than pre-recession levels. Many students tell us they might not have a job yet, but they have a plan.
WHP-TV May 14, 2018 -
Is it worse to suddenly lose your financial nest egg or never to have saved any money at all? This question concerns many of us: A quarter of Americans watched much or all of their life savings evaporate during the last recession, while nearly half of U.S. families have nothing put aside for retirement, according to the Economic Policy Institute and federal data.
The Wall Street Journal May 14, 2018 -
The difference between earning the minimum wage and a livable wage can be significant, Carr said. For example, the Economic Policy Institute—a research group based in Washington, D.C.,—maintains an online family budget calculator, which outlines the costs associated with what the center describes as a “modest, but adequate standard of living,” EPI research assistant Zane Mokhiber said. According to the calculator—which uses various national and local data sets—a two-parent, two-child family in Harris County needs to have the ability to spend $73,010 a year on living expenses to meet the standard of living defined by EPI. This is significantly higher than the national poverty line for a family of the same size, which is $25,100. Four out of the nine ZIP codes that compromise Spring and Klein had median household incomes more than $73,010 in 2016, with median incomes ranging from $39,583 to $115,783. “We wanted to try to estimate what it would cost to have health care, child care … and you have the money to eat three healthy meals,” Mokhiber said. “You’re not in poverty but not middle class either.”
Community Impact May 14, 2018 -
College grads entering the job market in 2018 are facing a good news-bad news situation. The good news: “Things are certainly a lot better than they were for their older brothers and sisters who graduated” in the wake of the Great Recession, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. But the economy isn’t back to where it was in 2000 — when wages were enjoying strong growth — or even to 2007, before the recession hit, she noted. Wages for some recent college grads, especially black graduates and women, haven’t kept up with those of their white male classmates, according to a new report from the EPI. And more than one in 10 college grads are “underemployed,” or working in jobs that don’t use their skills. Instead of getting work in an accounting firm with that finance degree, they may be slinging lattes at the local Starbucks.
CBS Moneywatch May 11, 2018 -
Over the past four decades, America’s private-sector unionization rate has collapsed — along with labor’s share of productivity gains. A large and growing body of economic research has demonstrated that this is no coincidence: Unions don’t just grow paychecks for their members, but also put upward pressure on wages throughout their industries. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that weekly wages for private-sector male workers would be 5 percent higher today, were America’s unionization rate still as high as it was in 1979 (changes in the prevalence of gender wage discrimination and female participation in the workforce complicate the comparison for working women). Back then, 34 percent of private-sector workers belonged to a union; today, just 10.7 percent do.
New York Magazine May 11, 2018 -
In fact, that mom earning the minimum wage needs an hourly raise. Enacting the Democrats’ proposal of raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2024 would lift the pay of 7.6 million working moms — a third of working mothers, the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper has found. These women’s earnings account for two-thirds of their families’ income. Ignoring the policy is, thus, a missed opportunity to help working moms.
The Washington Post May 11, 2018 -
Minnesota and Wisconsin have a lot in common in terms of geography, size and culture. But over the past seven years, they’ve taken drastically different political paths. A new report by the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute says Minnesota’s economic growth has far outpaced Wisconsin’s. Report author and EPI senior economic analyst David Cooper says the two states were fairly similar in politics and economics, until the last recession. Since then, Minnesota’s state government has raised taxes on the wealthy to finance investments, raised the minimum wage and accepted the Medicaid expansion. Cooper describes Wisconsin’s more conservative approach as, “Cutting taxes, weakening labor standards, not accepting the Medicaid expansion, rejecting federal funding for public investment.” (whole story)
Public News Service May 11, 2018 -
Overall, the class of 2018 has better job prospects than the classes of 2009 to 2017, according to analysts from the Economic Policy Institute, but women and black applicants still face challenges.
Biz Woman May 10, 2018