The improvement in the overall labor market deserves most of the credit, says Valerie Wilson, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Over the past 12 months the U.S. economy has added almost 3 million jobs, reducing the total unemployment rate by a full percentage point, to 5.1 percent. Wilson says employers have dug deeper into the ranks of the unemployed to find candidates. Many have been veterans.
Bloomberg
November 30, 2015
Yet, since the Department of Labor started tracking unemployment in 1972, and despite the fact that black unemployment has slightly improved since then according to official government estimates, it doesn’t gloss over the fact that such rates have always found themselves double the rate of white peers. “The African American unemployment rate is at or below its pre-recession level in eight states: Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Illinois, and Missouri,” explained the Economic Policy Institute’s Valerie Wilson in a recent analysis on black unemployment rates. “But this numerical recovery must be put in proper context because with the exception of Texas, each of these states also had black unemployment rates that were among the highest in the nation before the recession.”
The Hill
November 30, 2015
The good news is that the gap between men’s and women’s earnings has shrunk considerably in recent decades, according to a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. As if to underscore the point, the Census Bureau announced a bump in the number of wives out earning their husbands. Here’s the catch: One big reason women are catching up is that men have fallen down. About 40 percent of the narrowing of the wage gap is due to the fact that men’s wages have declined.
Boston Globe
November 25, 2015
In addition to the discrimination claims, the workers have also claimed a hostile work environment for having to train their replacements. Ronil Hira said this process is called “knowledge transfer,” and it is not unique to Disney. Hira is an associate professor in the political science department at Howard University and a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute. He studies visas, including the H-1B visa that allows employers to hire guest workers for highly skilled roles like these IT jobs, to the tune of 125,000 each year.
Marketplace
November 25, 2015
On paper, Oregon’s manufacturing economy still looks stronger than that of most states. Manufacturing accounts for 10.4 percent of state jobs, above the 8.8 percent national average and highest among Western states, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Oregonian
November 25, 2015
A report recently published by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that United States schools may not be trailing behind those of other countries as much as previous studies have suggested. The report was authored in part by professor of education Martin Carnoy, an economist specializing in education who has been a professor at Stanford for more than 40 years. The report analyzes international results of two assessments, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It focuses on the usefulness, or lack thereof, of common metrics used to compare the U.S. with other countries in order to make conclusions about the relative statuses of international education systems.
Stanford Daily
November 25, 2015
The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute released a study in 2012 to this point, which found that in 2009 the U.S. had the highest child poverty rate among what the institute considered comparable countries — mostly in Europe, along with Japan, Canada, and Australia.
Arizona Republic
November 25, 2015
About 8.7 million jobs disappeared during the last recession. American men have encountered less trouble getting back to work, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Between February 2010 and June 2014, they gained 5.5 million jobs, while women gained 3.6 million.
The Washington Post
November 23, 2015
The result is continued concern that management compensation is not adequately aligned with ownership interests and that executives are extracting excessive compensation with the tacit support of captive boards of directors. These concerns are magnified by the extraordinary rise in executive compensation in the U.S. since the 1980s. In one study by the Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation rose 937% between 1978 and 2013, compared to an average worker’s gain of 10% or the S&P500 index which rose roughly by half, or 422%. Clearly, bankruptcy pre-filing disclosure is inadequate.
Wall Street Journal
November 23, 2015
Labaton’s group is advocating for a national policy solution to the problem. And it’s a doozy of a problem. It’s more expensive to pay for a year of day care for an infant than to pay for a year of tuition at public colleges in most U.S. states, according to an analysis of child care costs by the progressive Economic Policy Institute, Daniel Marans wrote about earlier this year.
The Huffington Post
November 23, 2015