However, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down the implications of the BLS survey, and determined that greener industries actually grow faster than the overall economy: For every increase of one percentage point in the share of green jobs that made up an industry’s employment — or its “green intensity” — overall employment in that industry increases 0.034 percentage points higher.
Think Progress
March 13, 2013
“America was much more equal when you go back to the late ’50s, and ’60s,” Nicholas Finio, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, told Campus Progress. “Deliberate policy decisions have allowed this to happen.”
The silver lining: Higher marginal tax rates and better labor protections can make America more equal. “Policy is what made it this way,” Finio said, “and policy can turn it back.”
Campus Progress
March 13, 2013
“The fact is that we have an economy now that’s working well only for those at the very top,” said Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. “Unless we adopt a new approach to economic policy, we’re going to continue going down this path, which means growth that does not really benefit the great majority of people in this country.”
Nationally, Mishel says the declining value of the federal minimum wage is a major factor driving inequality.
Associated Press
March 13, 2013
Some argue that raising the minimum wage offers benefits to those who may not need them. This argument is also flawed. The Economic Policy Institute’s latest analysis shows that most low-wage workers live in low-wage households, and 84% of the workers in low-wage jobs are at least 20 years old. But, regardless of age or need, anyone who shows up to work and puts in hard hours deserves a wage that keeps him or her out of poverty.
Los Angeles Times
March 13, 2013
“The strong showing in February is welcome,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “But given the jobs deficit of 8.9 million jobs (from the 2007 recession), even at February’s growth rate we wouldn’t get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate until 2017.”
NBC News
March 13, 2013
“There is no evidence of a ‘skills’ mismatch in the labor market,” said economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. “What we have is a broad-based lack of demand for workers, not a skills problem.”
In her view, businesses aren’t hiring because demand for their goods and services hasn’t risen enough to require new workers.
Detroit Free Press
March 13, 2013
BOBKOFF: It’s simple math. We are still way below employment levels from before the financial meltdown. Heidi Shierholz is a labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute. She says we still need 9 million more jobs to get back to healthy levels.
HEIDI SHIERHOLZ: It’s a little sobering ’cause you start to think, okay, but even if we got a report this strong every single month from here on out, given how large the job deficit is in our labor market, it would still take until the middle of 2017 to get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate.
BOBKOFF: And Shierholz says much of the drop in the unemployment rate can be attributed to job seekers dropping out of the labor force. But enough with the naysayers, says Brian Jones of Societe Generale.
NPR
March 13, 2013
Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told the Post that life expectancy “has increased mainly among the privileged class.” For many, she says, raising the retirement age would amount to a significant benefit cut.
AARP Blog
March 13, 2013
“Life expectancy has increased mainly among the privileged class,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist who focuses on retirement issues at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning research organization. “For many people, raising the retirement age would amount to a significant benefit cut.”
The Washington Post
March 13, 2013
Andrew Fieldhouse, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, estimates that the plan would cost the country 2 million jobs in 2014 alone.
The Huffington Post
March 13, 2013