Media clips
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Who needs a raise? Nearly everyone, it turns out. Hourly wages in the U.S. are growing a modest 2 percent this year, keeping Americans barely ahead of inflation (or miles behind it if you happen to be strolling down the meat aisle at your local grocery store).
This is older news than you might think. Wages have been stagnant not only since the epic recession that followed the 2008 housing crash, but for decades. In 1979, median production and non-supervisory workers (who account for 80 percent of all private-sector employees) made an inflation-adjusted $15.75 an hour. As of 2013, that pay had inched up only to $16.70 — that’s a total gain of 6.1 percent over 34 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CBS Moneywatch July 10, 2014 -
There were 4.72 million hires in May, up 3% from the end of 2013, according to U.S. Labor Department data. But over that same time period, job openings rose 18% to 4.64 million at the end of May.
“There are simply more and more unfilled openings,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities, wrote in a research note.
Over at the Economic Policy Institute, a left leaning think tank based in Washington, economist Heidi Shierholz wrote in a blog post that hiring needs to pick up for the labor market to experience a full recovery.
“Hiring is the side of that equation that, while generally improving, has not yet come close to a full recovery,” Shierholz wrote.
Market Watch July 10, 2014 -
Ned Resnikoff: The thing about picking a high-wage career is that unemployment is elevated across the board, even in STEM industries like engineering and so on. Just today, the Economic Policy Institute observed that unemployment in just about every field – including finance, health care, and business services – far outstrips the number of available job openings. So what are these other careers that thousands of yoga instructors should be crossing into?
There’s a reason why the gig economy, which includes yoga teachers and other independent contractors, is expanding so quickly: With unemployment so elevated among full-time professionals, freelancing on the side might be the only way to pay the bills. It just so happens that when you dive into the precarious world of independent contracting, you expose yourself to a whole host of other risks.
MSNBC July 10, 2014 -
The economy continues to be afflicted by over 5 million “missing workers” who are neither employed nor actively seeking work. Some of these workers are over the age of 55, and perhaps simply in a state of irrevocable early retirement. But as this chart from the Economic Policy Institute shows, over 3 million of them are in prime working years and another 1.5 million are below the age of 25.
Macroeconomic policy dedicated to preventing currently employed workers from ever securing a raise essentially guarantees that no employer will ever face a strong business case for taking a risk on these missing workers. Yet keeping millions of able-bodied adults out of the workforce will do permanent harm to the American economy.
VOX July 10, 2014 -
The unemployment number can also mask how many people are among the long-term unemployed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates long-term joblessness is dropping — but this figure only counts the number of unemployed people looking for work. Those who find jobs often can’t keep them. And if you give up looking for work, you drop off the list the same way as a newly employed person would. However, erasure from the job market still entitles people to have opinions on the economy — and they probably aren’t feeling too good about it.
In addition, wages have stagnated for many workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post July 10, 2014 -
A group of education advocates is calling on the District to release more information about students’ performance on city tests, arguing that the limited data released in years past has overstated city schools’ progress.
Elaine Weiss of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education — a group that has been critical of education policies that have taken root in the District, such as charter schools and test-based accountability — wrote in an analysis to be released Thursday that “lack of transparency, combined with cherry-picking specific numbers” has enabled the city to “paint a false picture of progress,” particularly among poor and African American students.Washington Post July 10, 2014 -
Ross Eisenbrey helped with this.
New York Times July 3, 2014 -
The question of whether college is worth ithas put higher education under the microscope for several years.
With the average student loan debt at $29,400, according to the Institute for College Access & Success, and unemployment of recent college graduates at 8.5% and underemployment at 16.8%, according to the Economic Policy Institute, it may be difficult for some to answer that college is worth it.
But the question is more complex than that. Here are some things to consider when deciding if you should choose any college at all.
USA Today July 3, 2014 -
Affirmative action in college admissions for African Americans has been losing support in the United States for some time, with new “colorblind” methods of ending gaining ground in the courts. In this powerful defense of affirmative action, Richard Rothstein explains why pretending color doesn’t matter doesn’t actually work and why it is unfair. Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. He is also senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law, and he is the author of books including “Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right, and “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.” He was a national education writer for The New York Times as well. This first appeared in the American Prospect.
Washington Post July 3, 2014 -
In March, President Obama announced an executive order to update the rules, which will readjust the classification exemptions as well as the salary threshold—although it’s not clear by how much as it is still in public comment mode. But if the limit were raised to $50,440 a year, as proposed by the Economic Policy Institute, about ten million people would be brought into overtime protection. That wouldn’t just mean extra pay in their pockets for working more hours. It could also make employers think harder about asking people to stay over 40 hours, thus bringing back the nine-to-five world we long said good-bye to.
The New Republic July 3, 2014