Media clips
-
The Economic policy Institute Class of 2015 reports that for college graduates, the unemployment rate has risen from 5.5 percent in 2007 to 7.2 percent. The underemployment rate went from 9.6 percent to 14.9 percent.
Al Jazeera America February 16, 2016 -
A 2014 survey from the Pew Institute found that the median college-educated person made $17,500 more than those with a high school diploma. In 1965, the difference was closer to $7,500, and in 1986 it was $14,245. (Numbers adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2012 dollars.) Making matters even more depressing, wages in the U.S. have been more or less stagnant since 1979, according to a study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “I think that’s the preeminent issue of our time,” said EPI President Larry Mishel.
Fortune February 16, 2016 -
Union membership comes with a wage increase of more than 13 percent—and those bargaining table bumps can be good for entire communities. When union members win a raise, they’re more likely to be able to go see a movie at the local theater or grab a bite to eat at the neighborhood diner, even buy a new car or house. That consumer spending helps drive our economy. And as union membership has declined, non-union workers have been hurt, too—because their employers no longer feel pressured to raise salaries to the standard set by collective bargaining.
Medium February 16, 2016 -
Later in the debate, Sanders repeated this figure and said African American “youth unemployment [is] at 51 percent.” Sanders’s statistics refer to high school graduates between 17 and 20 years old who are not enrolled in additional schooling. He is citing research from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The report looks at employment status for high school graduates who are unemployed, working part-time and “marginally attached to the labor force” (meaning “those who want a job and have looked for work in the last year but have given up actively seeking work in the last four weeks”). It uses the broadest measure of underemployment, called the U-6 measure of labor underutilization. This report is different from the official unemployment rate published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does not break out data for 17- to 20-year-olds.
The Washington Post February 12, 2016 -
From 1992 to 2014, compensation per executive in the limited-deductibility categories rose more rapidly—by about 650 percent, to $8.2 million from $1.1 million — than compensation in categories such as stock options and incentive pay that aren’t subject to deductibility limits. The latter rose by about 350 percent, to $4.4 million from $970,000. “That’s powerful,” Steven Balsam, a leading academic expert on executive compensation practices, said when told what our study showed. Balsam is a professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business who published a 2012 study on the deduction cap for the Economic Policy Institute. “At best, 162(m) has had a marginal effect,” he said. “It hasn’t had a major impact.”
The Washington Post February 12, 2016 -
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute last year found that 51.3% of black and 36.1% Hispanic high school graduates, age 17 to 20, were underemployed. That means they either don’t have a job, aren’t working as many hours as they would like or aren’t currently looking for work but would like a job.
CNN Money February 12, 2016 -
Yesterday the Albert Shanker Institute, a think tank affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), hosted a panel discussion on school and housing segregation. Featuring Kimberly Goyette, a sociologist at Temple University, Amy Ellen Schwartz, an economist at NYU, Amy Stuart Wells, a sociologist at Columbia, and Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and former New York Times education columnist—the four speakers explored how best to provide children and families with opportunity.
On the panel, Richard Rothstein argued that the country has a long way to go in terms of fulfilling its constitutional obligation to desegregate schools—and that the first step must involve launching a national education campaign so that the public, and progressives in particular, can better understand their history. He called de facto segregation “a national myth”—one that allows Americans to sleep easy in the face of illegal discrimination. “We have to get serious about desegregating the country, and I don’t just mean desegregating low-income families,” he said. “I mean lower-middle class areas too. We need a fundamental rethinking about our priorities.” Rothstein walked through the history of government-sponsored housing segregation, specifically looking at Ferguson, Missouri, which he’s also written about at length for The American Prospect.
The American Prospect February 12, 2016 -
Liberal groups like the AFL-CIO and the Economic Policy Institute have started a petition drive to urge the Obama administration not to “let Congress run out the clock” on the Labor Department’s proposed overtime rule, which would more than double (to $50,440) the salary threshold under which virtually all employees qualify for time-and-a-half if they work more than 40 hours in any given week.
Politico February 12, 2016 -
Given that the stock rout occurred right after the Federal Reserve boosted rates for the first time since 2006, some are pointing fingers at the central bank. Economists such as the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute have expressed concern that the hike wasn’t justified given the still-recovering U.S. economy. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen on Thursday called the December decision “tranquil” and pointed to other issues, including weaker global economic growth.
CBS Moneywatch February 12, 2016 -
The trouble comes when we use the consumer spending numbers in the GDP to draw conclusions for which it was not designed, said Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. “I think there’s a critique of the U.S. economy that relies on the claim that [there is] too much short-termism, and people are too materialistic,” but the numbers don’t bear that out, Bivens said. “A lot of what has driven rising consumption over the last 20 or 30 years in the U.S. economy is health care, education and rent. And it doesn’t saying anything about a moral failure,” he said.
Marketplace February 11, 2016