The change in the tone of the political discourse coincides with statistics across the board showing that Black communities have been disproportionately negatively impacted under the second Trump Administration. For example, Black Oregonians experienced unemployment at rates twice as high as their white counterparts (8.8% compared to 4.4%) in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Street Roots
August 24, 2026
“Bessent is certainly right that the U.S. economy isn’t producing many jobs. Hiring is extraordinarily weak—hiring rates are where they were in 2011, in the aftermath of the great recession,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told Newsweek. “But the idea that weak job growth is somehow okay economically if it is the result of deportations is deeply wrong.
“Deporting immigrants does not make U.S.-born workers better off. That is not how the economy works. Deportations don’t just affect those being deported, they ripple through the entire economy.”
Shierholz said that when there are fewer immigrant roofers and framers, fewer homes are built, meaning less work for U.S.-born electricians and plumbers.
Newsweek
August 24, 2026
Kelles said income inequality is the primary driver of the housing crisis, citing the Economic Policy Institute’s 2024 report that says top earners saw massive income gains since the 1970s — up to 182% for the top 1% — while wages for the bottom 90% grew 44%. This growing wealth gap leaves average workers unable to afford construction-driven housing costs.
Ithaca Times
August 24, 2026
Host/Producer: Amy Browne
WERU Radio (Maine)
August 24, 2026
Finding another job has also taken longer. In December 2025, Black women spent a median of 19 weeks without work, compared with nine weeks for white women, an IWPR analysis of federal labor data found.
Public-sector losses were particularly significant. An Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis found that Black women lost about 156,000 public-sector jobs between 2024 and 2025, including roughly 95,000 federal jobs, even as they gained about 76,000 jobs in the private sector.
The Miami Times
August 24, 2026
One Fair Wage added that “one job should be enough to live on” and that “Congress should pass the Living Wage For All Act and make that standard the law.”
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“That projection is inconsistent with decades of minimum-wage research,” it continued. “The Economic Policy Institute estimates that a federal minimum wage equal to two-thirds of the national median wage would raise pay for nearly 40 million workers. Research from UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich and the Roosevelt Institute finds that ambitious, phased increases at this level raise incomes broadly with little effect on overall employment.”
Fox News
August 24, 2026
Union jobs help close the gap between wages and the cost of living. Workers represented by a union make on average 12% more than people in the same non-union job. A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that if union membership grew to where it was in the 1950s, the average worker would see a 14.5% raise, or more than $7,000 a year in their wallet annually. Union contracts also often include strong anti-harassment policies and provide safe, confidential grievance procedures for workers.
Idaho Statesman
August 24, 2026
The poll found almost half of Americans thought childcare costs fall below $10,000 but the Economic Policy Institute reported New York childcare costs more than $18,000 per year, more than the cost of in-state tuition at a four-year college.
Public News Service
August 24, 2026
Then, a January analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee revealed that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year as his policies drove up prices.
That was followed by a February warning from the Economic Policy Institute that Trump’s economic agenda “will make ordinary families reliably poorer in the future.” EPI’s chief economist, Josh Bivens, pointed to the president’s anti-labor policies, cuts to federal spending and jobs, mass deportation efforts, and tariffs—as well as the OBBBA, which gave tax breaks to the rich while stripping healthcare and food assistance from Americans in need.
Common Dreams
August 24, 2026
Economists caution, however, that AI is not yet showing up as a broad collapse in employment. The Dallas Fed said its analysis suggested only a slight effect on the overall unemployment rate so far, and the Economic Policy Institute said rising unemployment among young college graduates and young workers without degrees suggests AI alone is unlikely to explain recent labor market weakness.
Cleveland.com
August 24, 2026