Media clips
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First, has China really stolen U.S. jobs? The numbers say yes. Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China “eliminated or displaced more than 2.7 million U.S. jobs,” according to a report published in August by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank.
CNN October 26, 2012 -
In a recent study, Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., pointed out that in the three years following the recessions of 1990 and 2000, the government sector added jobs. In the three years following the Great Recession, 627,000 government jobs were cut.
“These public-sector losses are dominated by austerity at the state and local level, with federal employment contributing only about 6 percent of this entire gap,” the researchers wrote. Jobs being cut as budgets tighten include those of police officers, firefighters or even the 293 teaching positions eliminated this school year in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette October 26, 2012 -
Despite having enjoyed the benefit of government jobs her entire career — whether in the district attorney’s office and now as governor — Martinez hasn’t seemed to understand that, yes, government can, and should, create jobs. In fact, The New York Times quoted an Economic Policy Institute study in a recent editorial, “If not for state and local budget austerity, the report found, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, half of which would be in the private sector.” Forget jobs, New Mexicans. We need to have another debate about driver’s licenses. And that, citizens, is two years wasted, a textbook case of opportunity cost.
Santa Fe New Mexican October 26, 2012 -
No swing state has seen its economy hammered as hard as Ohio’s since the U.S. joined the WTO in 1994, with employment in the manufacturing sector plunging by one-third, according to the consumer protection nonprofit group Public Citizen. According to a study by economist Robert Scott with the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank, Ohio shed 91,800 jobs between 2001 and 2010 due to the rising trade deficit with China.
The Huffington Post October 24, 2012 -
That means the economy suffers when government cuts back. A report by the Economic Policy Institute examined the effect of recent cutbacks at the state and local level — including direct loss of government jobs and indirect loss of suppliers’ jobs; the jobs that should have been added to keep up with population growth; and the reduction in purchasing power from other cutbacks. If not for state and local budget austerity, the report found, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, half of which would be in the private sector.
The New York Times October 23, 2012 -
“Labor is on the defensive,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Insitute, a liberal research and policy organization in Washington, D.C. “This could very well be a turning point if the people of Michigan affirm collective bargaining.”
Associated Press October 23, 2012 -
The Economic Policy Institute also estimated the holiday’s expiration would deliver one of the fiscal cliff’s biggest hits to economic growth next year. In fact, EPI’s analysis found it does more damage to the economy per dollar than to the budget. For most parts of the fiscal cliff, the opposite was the case. So by keeping some parts of the fiscal cliff while canceling others — such as the payroll tax holiday expiration — damage to both the economy and the budget could be minimized.
EPI acknowledged that the payroll tax cut as it stands is not optimal stimulus. But it added, “optimal policy responses are hard to come by these days.”
Think Progress October 23, 2012 -
“The initial stimulus deserves very high marks, but it could have been more effective with fewer tax cuts,” said Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning research organization. “In some ways, it has to do with Obama’s political tactic of incorporating things he thinks the opposition wants thinking they would say yes. But, as we saw, they didn’t.”
The Washington Post October 19, 2012 -
According to the Economic Policy Institute, poverty is on the rise in the U.S. and the “poor are getting poorer.” Despite great strides for poverty alleviation in Mexico (Slim’s home), a large part of the workforce, informal workers — defined as non-salaried workers who are self-employed — remain in poverty and are considered a “basic challenge to the country’s development.”
AARP October 19, 2012 -
Is your job green?
Compared with the local, state and private sectors, the federal government has the highest percentage of green jobs.
That’s the word from the Economic Policy Institute, which analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data. EPI says 5.3 percent of federal jobs are considered green, compared with 4.9 percent of state jobs, 3.4 percent of local government jobs and 2.1 percent of private-sector gigs.
But what is a green job?
The EPI paper says green jobs “produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.” But finding out if your job is green isn’t easy. Ethan Pollack, the report’s author, said BLS data indicate that public administration accounts for 82 percent of federal green jobs, leisure and hospitality about 9 percent and utilities about 6 percent.
Unfortunately, the report doesn’t give specific examples of green federal jobs.
“Public administration jobs can be office jobs, but not exclusively,” Pollack said by e-mail. “Remember, public administration is an industry rather than an occupation, so it doesn’t define what workers do on a day-to-day basis so much as it defines the types of organizations they work for.”
The Washington Post October 19, 2012