Over the last year, about half of the labor market’s recent growth came from immigrants, according to federal data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Berkshire Eagle
April 12, 2024
“Starbucks has not joined a lawsuit against the NLRB questioning its constitutionality or initiated similar litigation against the NLRB,” the company told Fortune, linking to a statement. As of March, the coffee conglomerate has 741 open or settled NLRB cases according to the Economic Policy Institute—although the coffee chain recently reversed itself and pledged to negotiate with its unionized workers.
Fortune
April 12, 2024
More workers filling more jobs and spending more money has helped drive economic growth and create still-more job openings. The availability of immigrant workers eased the pressure on companies to sharply raise wages and to then pass on their higher labor costs to their customers via higher prices that feed inflation. Though U.S. inflation remains elevated, it has plummeted from its levels of two years ago.
“There’s been something of a mystery — how are we continuing to get such extraordinary strong job growth with inflation still continuing to come down?’’ said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist at the Labor Department. “The immigration numbers being higher than what we had thought — that really does pretty much solve that puzzle.’’
Associated Press
April 12, 2024
The Trump increase was due partly to low-wage workers being laid off disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic, the analysis said.
Economist Josh Bivens of the liberal Economic Policy Institute said the 7% figure goes back to Richard Nixon’s first term in 1969. He called the increase under Trump “artificial” because fewer low-income workers were employed, driving up the average.
Wisconsin Watch
April 12, 2024
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a GOP-backed measure that would scrap work permit requirements for 14- and 15-year-olds. Wisconsin is one of 28 states where lawmakers have proposed weakening child labor laws since 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (Bloomberg Government)
Bloomberg Government
April 12, 2024
Finally, the Economic Policy Instituteshowed that Illinois’ Black unemployment rate was…[paywall].
Chicago Tribune
April 12, 2024
TAPPER: Research public — published by the Economic Policy Institute last year suggests that women earn less money and stay in poverty longer when they don’t have access to abortion rights.
The Lead with Jake Tapper
April 12, 2024
A report from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the real amount of wage theft in the country could be as high as $50 billion per year.
WKOW
April 12, 2024
“Unemployment has been at or below 4% for 27 months running, the longest such strength since the late 1960s,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
U.S. News
April 12, 2024
Across the political aisle, the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI) expressed similar skepticism about the USCIS proposals.
Responding to the NPRM’s solicitation for comments, EPI declared: “[T]he H-1B Modernization rule only tinkers at the edges of improving program integrity, but fails terribly to tackle any of the real problems that have been documented by investigative news reports, government audits, and researchers like ourselves – while simultaneously proposing to dramatically expand the size of an H-1B program that remains vulnerable to rampant fraud and abuse.”
The Register
April 12, 2024