This trend, particularly among the building trades, Ascher said, followed the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement — a pact among the United States, Mexico and Canada — that the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank affiliated with the labor movement, says led to the loss of thousands of union jobs.
Capital News Service Maryland
October 4, 2024
In the late 1990s, the rates of multiple jobholders were “much higher,” said economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute.
Agence France Press (AFP)
October 4, 2024
The U.S. economy added 254,000 new positions in the month of September, topping economist expectations of 150,000 jobs. Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould joins Morning Brief to share her insights on this latest labor market data.
Gould emphasizes that this report reinforces the strength of the labor market, stating, “It was strong before, and this is another strong report.” She highlights the positive indicators: a decrease in the unemployment rate and upward revisions adding 72,000 jobs to previous months’ figures. These factors paint a picture of a “quite strong” labor market.
Yahoo Finance TV
October 4, 2024
Between 1979 and 2024, productivity in the U.S. soared by 80.9%, while hourly pay grew by just 29.4%, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute.
This trend has often been referred to as wage stagnation. But more recently, some economists have suggested that deliberate policy decisions have actively suppressed workers’ wage growth.
One reason might be the unreasonably high rate of unemployment in the U.S.
“Economists produce this thing they call the natural rate of unemployment,” explained Josh Bivens, the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s like the lowest unemployment can go without generating inflation.”
CNBC
October 4, 2024
Unions can “promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions,” said the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Pushes by unions for higher wages seem to be working, as the 17 states with the highest union densities “have state minimum wages that are on average 19% higher than the national average.”
The Week
October 3, 2024
Immigration has undoubtedly changed the U.S. economy, especially since the pandemic. About 50 percent of the labor market’s extraordinary recent growth came from foreign-born workers between January 2023 and January 2024, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of federal data.
The Washington Post
October 3, 2024
Agence France Press (AFP)
October 3, 2024
“We should really be leaning into taxes for the rich,” Heidi Shierholz, chief economist at the Department of Labor under the Obama administration and now president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told Capital & Main. Harris’ cutoff of $400,000 for tax hikes suggests anyone making less than this figure is not rich. Shierholz argued that while there are different ways to define the term, this limit may be too high: “In my mind, essentially every possible way of defining the wealthy will include some people making less than $400,000 a year.”
Capital & Main
October 3, 2024
But whether or not Khan remains in a Harris administration, the FTC would likely continue on a similar track, says Heidi Shierholz, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Harris may even widen the FTC’s remit. With voters still experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store, Shierholz says, “I think one of the ways she will address price increases is through the antitrust route”—by blocking the Kroger-Albertsons merger, for example.
Fortune
October 1, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute separately found that roughly 1,800 U.S. factories shuttered during Trump’s first term.
Common Dreams
October 1, 2024