Media clips
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But those who do manage to find jobs are also struggling. Young people with high school degrees have seen their inflation-adjusted wages decline by 11.1%; college graduates have seen a smaller, yet significant, decline of 5.4%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Yahoo Finance February 28, 2013 -
The Hispanic unemployment rate at the end of 2012 in 13 states significantly exceeded the state rate, with the percentage of jobless Hispanics surpassing 17 percent in five states.
Overall, the unemployment rates likely will remain high for whites, Latinos, and African-Americans through the year, according to projections by the Economic Policy Institute.
National Journal February 28, 2013 -
Illinois’ 2013 unemployment rate for whites and Hispanics is projected to stay consistent with 2012, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But the rate for African Americans is expected to decrease to 13.9 percent, but still stay above the national average.
The report suggests “our leaders have gotten sidetracked by potentially harmful calls for deficit reduction” and should instead borrow money to “invest heavily in infrastructure improvements, which create large numbers of jobs and stimulate the economy.”
“Policymakers need to focus on jobs now, and on deficits only after we have a strong economy,” the report reads. The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute is a non-profit think tank often presenting a liberal viewpoint on economic issues.
According to the author of the report, Algernon Austin, director of the program on race, ethnicity and economy at the Economic Policy Institute, infrastructure spending has a “big bang for your buck” and would positively stimulate the economy.
“That means we could put a lot of unemployed construction workers to work right now, and way into the future, infrastructure investments lead to higher productivity, it’s a win-win,” he said. “The borrowing costs are quite low for the government right now, the smart thing at the federal level is to borrow investment for infrastructure, put people back to work and ensure long-term strong economic productivity.”
Progress Illinois February 28, 2013 -
“So much about our dynamics of income inequality have been about the very top,” said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “This is not going to have a huge impact on that dynamic of the top pulling away.”
Roll Call February 28, 2013 -
But Josh Bivens, director of research and policy for the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said NERA’s job-forecasting model is flawed. Bivens accused the firm of trying “to play on totally-legitimate concerns about today’s weak labor market.”
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But Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute said NERA’s methodology is misleading because it relies on a model that “assumes nobody who wants a job cannot find one, nor does anybody who separates from a job ever do it involuntarily.”
“This means that they have literally nothing at all to say about whether or not [regulations] will increase or decrease unemployment,” he said, adding that his research indicates the regulations in question would yield a modest boost in job creation over the coming years.
The Hill February 28, 2013 -
According to a 2012 brief by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank, the construction sector suffered the largest job losses of any industry during the recession, followed by manufacturing. While women still outnumber men in the financial, education and health care, and leisure and hospitality sectors, the EPI said, “men have gained in each sector relative to pre-recession shares and now make up a higher share of the payrolls in each sector,” positing that the shift isn’t signifying an end to gender segmentation in the labor markets, but rather both men and women desperately responding to a dismal market where a stable job is the primary concern.
Yahoo Finance February 26, 2013 -
Nearly 90 percent, and this is a study that the Economic Policy Institute did last summer, showing that nearly 90 percent of the recipients of that minimum wage increase are at least 20 years old, more than half work full time, more than a quarter are parents. I mean these are working people not unlike every other working person, and they do need to – it seems to me and I think it is not just economic issue, it is a moral issue. If they’re working full time, they should not be in poverty.
NPR February 26, 2013 -
That’s substantially higher than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, or $15,080 per year for an employee working 40 hours per week all year. When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is now lower in 2011 than it was in 1967, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Huffington Post February 26, 2013 -
In a blog post, Economic Policy Institute analyst David Cooper explored that idea further. He ran the numbers on some other possible indices to which minimum wage could be tied. The chart below shows his work.
Bill Moyers Blog February 26, 2013 -
The statement doesn’t identify how such a bureau would be structured, and the decision ultimately lies with Congress. But a handful of groups have advocated for some version of the idea—notably, the Brookings Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Migration Policy Institute, and the Economic Policy Institute. The chamber wouldn’t comment beyond what was in Thursday’s statement, but the AFL-CIO pointed to an EPI plan as an influence on its 2009 immigration-reform platform. Here’s what that would look like:
Under the EPI plan, a commission would hold a great deal of power over immigration policy. The Foreign Worker Adjustment Commission—proposed in 2009 by EPI’s Ray Marshall—would have the authority to set employment-based immigration levels, subject only to congressional disapproval. FWAC would study labor shortages by looking at regional, demographic, and educational trends to develop its policy suggestions. The top priority, Marshall writes, “is the preservation of U.S. labor standards.” (Brookings advocates for a similar commission, but with a narrower scope. It would provide annual recommendations to Congress and the president, but the recommendations could be ignored.)
The EPI proposal envisions the president wielding a great deal of power over the commission’s structure.
National Journal February 26, 2013