One of the core pillars of middle-out economics is empowering workers—giving them the tools they need to claim their fair share of economic growth. It’s worth emphasizing that there is no silver bullet here: There was a sweeping transformation to neoliberal economics, and we need another sweeping transformation to set us on a path of robust, broadly shared growth. In what follows, I detail some middle-out economic policies that will help close the productivity-pay gap, and what they would mean for working people.
Democracy Journal
March 14, 2024
Amid concerns about an increase in labor violations against youth workers in Maine, Terri Gerstein, director of New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative, says there are steps the state can take to better protect young people in the workforce.
Gerstein authored a report published late last month by the Economic Policy Institute and the Labor Initiative.
Maine Morning Star
March 14, 2024
“was keeping up with population growth, but not outpacing it, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute…[paywall]”
Atlanta Journal Constitution
March 8, 2024
“Immigrants are an integral part of our labor market, filling gaps caused by demographic changes in the United States and contributing to strong economic growth,” concludes the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “The idea that immigrants are making things worse for U.S.-born workers is wrong. The reality is that the labor market is absorbing immigrants at a rapid pace, while simultaneously maintaining record-low unemployment for U.S.-born workers.”
Chicago Sun Times
March 8, 2024
Friday’s jobs data offers “a tale of two surveys,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Employment fell in the household survey, but the payroll survey showed strong growth, she explained in a post on X Friday morning.
“Payroll survey is the gold standard (larger sample/benchmarked), but the increase in unemployment in the household survey is something to watch,” she wrote.
However, since nominal wage growth continues to ease, she said: “Fed take note: this is not an overheating labor market.”
CNN Business
March 8, 2024
Valerie Wilson, director at the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, said that the labor market is showing positive signs for Black women. She pointed to the decrease in unemployment rate, while the employment-population ratio edged higher to 60.6% from 59.9%.
“That seems unambiguously that things are moving in a positive direction,” she told CNBC.
As for why the cohort was able buck the trend, Wilson said that it could be due to the specific industries that added jobs last month.
“We saw increases in healthcare and government services, which are sectors where we see a significant number of black women being employed,” she said. “The fact that those were two sectors that added jobs and had the highest job growth in the last month is probably a factor in that increased participation rate and reduced unemployment rate.”
CNBC
March 8, 2024
The White House pointed to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, showing that CEO pay averaged more than 300 times that of the typical worker in 2022.
The Washington Post
March 8, 2024
The Economic Policy Institute said in 2014 that wage theft costs American workers as much as $50 billion a year.
LA Times
March 8, 2024
Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported there were 8.9 million positions open at the end of January, roughly the same number as a month earlier.
“The labor market remains strong but is decidedly not hot,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Job growth continues to be more than enough to keep up with working age population growth and layoffs remain historically low, but the hires rate has softened over the last year and is lower than it was pre-pandemic.”
U.S. News & World Report
March 8, 2024