Many data analysts see the shortage as a nationwide trend. The Economic Policy Institute reported that 72.6% of public school bus drivers were age 50 and older, compared to just 37.5% of state and local government employees. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the median age for school bus drivers in 2023 was 55.5.
Paducah Sun (KY)
August 6, 2024
Across the U.S., public sector unionization (e.g., police officers, teachers and postal workers) is higher than private sector unionization. Union density for public sector workers in Colorado is 24%, whereas in states like California, it’s 57% and in New York, 69%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Rocky Mountain PBS
August 6, 2024
“Slowing job growth makes clear that the Fed has waited too long to cut interest rates,” a note from analysts at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute stated.
Money Magazine
August 6, 2024
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not changed since 2009 and isn’t likely to change again anytime soon. However, a dozen states automatically hike the wage each year to account for inflation, the Economic Policy Institute reported.
GO Banking Rates
August 5, 2024
…by 12.1% between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis by economist Elise Gouldat the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute….
Bloomberg
August 5, 2024
An increase in the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 could impact nearly 500,000 workers in Nevada, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and would increase the average annual wage by nearly $2,000.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 5, 2024
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, argued the new jobs data “suggests the Fed has waited too long to lower interest rates.”
“More people entered the labor market in search of jobs, but many haven’t found them,” Gould wrote. “Nominal wage growth continues to edge down, falling to 3.6% year over year, its lowest in two years. While more recent comparisons are more volatile, the deceleration is clear across all measures. There is no evidence of inflationary pressures coming from the labor market.”
Common Dreams
August 5, 2024
“We’ve seen for several months a bit of softening in the labor market even though it is quite strong by historical standards …,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center economic think tank. “There’s been no inflationary pressures coming from the labor market as wage growth continues to decelerate.”
Gould added that she thinks the Fed has waited too long to cut interest rates, given what the labor market data shows.
“The softening is a little bit more concerning and we might be getting there sooner, that sort of cooling, than is necessary,” she said.
States Newsroom
August 5, 2024
But Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, stressed that these numbers include a lot of volatility — especially for the smaller population groups — and cautioned against reading too much into the trends.
In fact, Gould emphasized that while the overall unemployment rate rose last month, the labor market was still strong for the prime-age employment group, or for workers ages 25 to 54. The employment rate for this age cohort was 80.9% in July, the economist said. Gould added that female workers in this group continue to recover.
CNBC
August 5, 2024