At the October pace of job creation, “it will still take five years to get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate of 5%,” said labor economist Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Los Angeles Times
November 12, 2013
To reach the 5 percent unemployment rate that prevailed in mid-2008 shortly before the bust, the country still needs to add 8 million jobs. Economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute notes that if payrolls continue growing at the same rate as they have over the last 12 months, unemployment won’t reach its pre-recession level until 2018.
CBS Moneywatch
November 12, 2013
The lapse in benefits is also expected to exert some drag on the economy. Michael Feroli, the chief economist of JP Morgan, estimates that the expiration of benefits will shave about 0.4 percentage points from first-quarter economic growth next year. The Economic Policy Institute recently estimate that the lapse will cut GDP by about 0.2 percent and cost 310,000 jobs.
The Washington Post
November 12, 2013
“Just surpassing the pre-recession level of employment doesn’t come close to doing it,” Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told TIME. “There’s still long way to go before getting back to health.” Had jobs growth been on track with population growth, women would have added over 3 million more jobs than what they’ve actually gained and men would have added over 5 million.
Time Magazine
November 12, 2013
Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said the best remedy for the uneven job market is simply a stronger recovery.
Wall Street Journal
November 12, 2013
The Employment Policies Institute has received funding from the restaurant industry, and the think tank has sponsored some of Wessels’s work.
The study has many supporters, as well. Michael Reich, a UC Berkeley economist and director of the university’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, said he and colleagues reviewed the study, along with all others released by the institute’s researchers, to ensure they meet the university’s research standards — which he called “the highest in the world.”
“I think the report’s methodology is sound,” said David Cooper, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., liberal-leaning think tank. “Reasonable people can debate their conclusions and policy implications.”
Wall Street Journal
November 8, 2013
The effects of the H-1B visa program on wages is of particular interest to both economists and American unions. The Public Policy Institute of California, which has received funding from the tech industry, published a paper in December 2011 that shows H1-B visa holders are paid more than native workers and are more educated.
Hira, who previously conducted studies funded by the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, studied a smaller sample of H1-B workers and companies from 2010 to 2012 and found companies like Infosys typically paid foreign engineers only the minimum threshold that permits companies to bypass certain requirements under immigration law.
ABC News
November 8, 2013
Lower tax burdens: Prior to the 1980s, taxes were much higher for the rich. The top income tax rate in 1980 was 70 percent. In 1945 it was 94 percent.”Why would you pay someone millions of dollars a year if the government was going to take 90% of it?” said Lawrence Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute.Now, the top tax rate is 39.5 percent. Lower taxes mean there’s now more of an incentive for people to chase, and for companies to give, huge paychecks.
CNNMoney
November 8, 2013
The effects of the H-1B visa program on wages is of particular interest to both economists and American unions. The Public Policy Institute of California, which has received funding from the tech industry, published a paper in December 2011 that shows H1-B visa holders are paid more than native workers and are more educated.
Hira, who previously conducted studies funded by the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, studied a smaller sample of H1-B workers and companies from 2010 to 2012 and found companies like Infosys typically paid foreign engineers only the minimum threshold that permits companies to bypass certain requirements under immigration law.
ABC News
November 6, 2013
On the other side, groups like the Economic Policy Institute assert that the H-1B program is filled with loopholes that allow firms to hire guest works without first recruiting qualified and available U.S. workers. As the report explained, high-skilled guest workers may be taking the jobs that equally qualified college-educated workers could fill. If the number of guest workers rises as provided for in the bills Congress is presently considering, there will be more guest workers and STEM green card holders than college graduates in the information technology areas. Guest workers will more than fill the STEM jobs available, as an earlier report by the EPI noted.
The Washington Post
November 6, 2013