Media clips
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Metro Orlando had the second-highest rate of Hispanic unemployment in the nation last year, according to a report issued Monday by the Economic Policy Institute.
The jobless rate was 16.6 percent among Hispanics, researchers found, more than twice the unemployment rate of white residents. The Orlando area was second only to Providence, R.I., where the Hispanic unemployment rate was 23.3 percent.
Orlando Sentinel July 3, 2012 -
Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute notes that that’s just a dollar above the federal poverty level. This for a company that paid nine of its top executives a total of $441 million in 2011.
“The discrepancy between Apple’s profits/executive pay and its compensation to its workers is a particularly glaring example of what is occurring in the wider economy,” Mishel writes.
AlterNet July 2, 2012 -
If we got rid of standardized tests to rate public schools, what would we have instead? The most likely alternative is the inspectorate used in England. Scholars like Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute say school visits by well-trained inspectors would reveal more about what needs fixing than test score averages.
The Washington Post July 2, 2012 -
If premiums go up, so does the cost to taxpayers of insuring each individual. That’s why overturning the mandate might not mean the law spends less money: Even though we’re insuring fewer people, each one is costing us much more. Moreover, the people we’re insuring are, on average, quite a bit sicker, as healthier folks are hanging back from the market. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that “the cost per newly insured person under health reform without the mandate is 93.3 percent higher than under health reform with the mandate.”
July 2, 2012 -
Manufacturers have added 495,000 jobs since January 2010, when factory employment bottomed at almost 6 million below the 2000 level, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of that 6 million, almost 40 percent were lost to other countries, either directly or because imports replaced domestic production, says Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek July 2, 2012 -
On average, CEOs made 231 times what workers made in 2011, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute cited by the Los Angeles Times. An average worker would have to work 3,489 years to make the salary of a top-paid CEO.
The Huffington Post July 2, 2012 -
Elise Gould, liberal think tank Economic Policy Institute
This mattered for people’s lives. The mandate provides a necessary safety net for millions of Americans who could not afford healthcare.
I don’t think people understand how it can affect them or their neighbours’ lives, how hard it is for people trying to get by these days. To have the government step in and bolster an important safety net is really important.
Healthcare cost is one of the leading factors behind bankruptcy. Making sure people have affordable healthcare is going to help families make ends meet.
BBC News July 2, 2012 -
The concept developed in the column is of “complentary” factors of production. Increasing the supply of dishwashers and busboys increases employment opportunities for chefs, waiters, kitchen equipment manufacturers, and so forth all up and down the skill spectrum.
The research that really changed my thinking on this is ably covered in this great Heidi Shierholz did for EPI back in February 2010. Note that EPI is the premiere labor-liberal think tank in Washington and hardly a hotbed of apologism for the top one percent. The basic point here is that the old CW on low-skill immigration is that it raised real wages for high-skill workers but lowered them for low-skill workers. The key methodological advance comes from realizing that a very large share of low-skill workers in the United States are themselves immigrants. Since restricting low-skill immigration for the sake of low-skill immigrants is a little perverse, it’s helpful to distinguish between the impact on immigrant workers and native-born workers.
Slate June 28, 2012 -
In 2011, young college grads earned an average of $16.81 per hour – about $35,000 annually, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
National Journal June 28, 2012 -
In a CBO analysis of policy options for economic growth, payroll tax cuts ranked ahead of business tax cuts and infrastructure spending and behind aid to unemployed workers.
The payroll-tax cut puts money directly in the hands of consumers who are likely to spend it, said Ethan Pollack, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington group that favors ideas that benefit low- and middle- income workers.
“In the short run, we want additional consumer spending because that will create jobs and get the economy back on track,” said Pollack, who said he would prefer more aid to states and expanded unemployment insurance, both of which are more politically difficult. “If the question is, is it better to have the payroll-tax holiday or nothing, I would say it’s better to have it.”
Bloomberg BusinessWeek June 27, 2012 -
If Congress opts to pass the House Republican budget proposal as Romney urges, it would cost us 4.1 million jobs through 2014, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Grover Norquist has got to be pinching himself. Maybe he can use a smaller bathtub for his drown-the-government party.
Politico June 27, 2012 -
Investment does more than facilitate people getting to jobs. It also creates new ones. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that increased investment in public transit in Los Angeles would bear economic benefits in multiple ways. In addition to expanding access for residents to find jobs (an area in which certain parts of the city already do well), the construction itself would put a lot of people to work.
Grist June 27, 2012 -
Several organizations have attempted to quantify what a family requires to meet basic needs. The Economic Policy Institute has created Basic Family Budgets for more than 600 localities across the country.
The American Prospect June 26, 2012 -
The most valid comparison would be to consider New Jersey’s 17,600 jobs as a share of the job gains across the country in May, according to Doug Hall, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the Washington, DC-based Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
Politifact June 25, 2012 -
The numbers show that as bad as the unemployment rate is for college graduates—around 19.1 percent—the jobless rate for high school graduates is near 54 percent.
And the skills gap could get worse. Nearly 17 percent of high school graduates had no job or were not enrolled in college in 2011, up from 13.7 in 2007, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
CNBC June 25, 2012 -
The policy’s economic impact will probably be limited because the immigrants affected form a small part of the total workforce, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. It won’t produce big changes in growth or the unemployment rate, and concerns by policy critics that U.S. citizens will be displaced probably are unfounded, other labor-market analysts say.
The potential effect on those eligible is another story.
“By far the biggest impact will be on these individuals themselves,” Shierholz said. “They had very limited work opportunities but now they’ll be able to be fully integrated into the labor force.”
Bloomberg BusinessWeek June 22, 2012 -
Trade with China has destroyed every 55th job in America, nearly 2.8 million positions, analysis of government data by Robert E. Scott of the Economic Policy Institute shows. That equals wiping out every job in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. Nearly two million of those jobs were in manufacturing, Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. International Trade Commission data show.
Reuters June 21, 2012 -
No surprise then that wages are down, and mobility along with it:
adjusted for inflation, the median hourly wage was lower in 2011 than it was a decade earlier, according to data from a forthcoming book by the Economic Policy Institute, “The State of Working America, 12th Edition.” Good benefits are harder to come by, and people are staying longer in jobs that they want to leave, afraid that they will not be able to find something better. Only 2.1 million people quit their jobs in March, down from the 2.9 million people who quit in December 2007, the first month of the recession.
The Atlantic June 21, 2012 -
Data released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that younger families age 35-44 were the hardest hit by the collapse of the housing bubble. While American families on average experienced a 39% drop in net worth between 2007 and 2010, younger families saw a 54% drop in the same time period. The EPI, a liberal-leaning think tank based in Washington, expressed particular concern in the drop because most families start saving for retirement at this age and because younger families will have to save more than previous generations due to expected declines in pensions and Social Security benefits. Further, the economy grew on a per-capita inflation-adjusted basis each year between 1989 and 2010, while net worth for younger age groups fell over the same time period.
MarketWatch June 21, 2012 -
With the number of unemployed outpacing available jobs, the report somewhat weakens the argument that much of the unemployment problem afflicting the economy is the result of a skills mismatch.
“Unemployed workers far outnumber job openings in every sector,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
“This underscores that by far the main cause of today’s persistent high unemployment is a broad-based lack of demand for workers and not, as is often claimed, available workers lacking the skills needed for the sectors with job openings.”
Reuters June 20, 2012 -
“This is the kind of training that makes a difference,” says Ross Eisenbrey, vice president at the Economic Policy Institute and an expert on workforce economics. Most federal dollars for job training are spent on job-placement programs or short-term training that only qualifies students for low-wage jobs. “They might get résumé-writing advice, how-to-interview assistance, that kind of thing,” Eisenbrey says.
American Prospect June 20, 2012 -
These are anxious days for American workers. Many, like Ms. Woods, are underemployed. Others find pay that is simply not keeping up with their expenses: adjusted for inflation, the median hourly wage was lower in 2011 than it was a decade earlier, according to data from a forthcoming book by the Economic Policy Institute, “The State of Working America, 12th Edition.” Good benefits are harder to come by, and people are staying longer in jobs that they want to leave, afraid that they will not be able to find something better. Only 2.1 million people quit their jobs in March, down from the 2.9 million people who quit in December 2007, the first month of the recession.
“Unfortunately, the wage problems brought on by the recession pile on top of a three-decade stagnation of wages for low- and middle-wage workers,” said Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, a research group in Washington that studies the labor market. “In the aftermath of the financial crisis, there has been persistent high unemployment as households reduced debt and scaled back purchases. The consequence for wages has been substantially slower growth across the board, including white-collar and college-educated workers.”
The Washington Post June 20, 2012 -
The recession has hit the underemployed and underpaid. “Throughout the Great Recession and the not-so-great recovery, the most commonly discussed measure of misery has been unemployment. But many middle-class and working-class people who are fortunate enough to have work are struggling as well, which is why Sherry Woods, a 59-year-old van driver from Atlanta, found herself standing in line at a jobs fair this month, with her résumé tucked inside a Bible…These are anxious days for American workers. Many, like Ms. Woods, are underemployed. Others find pay that is simply not keeping up with their expenses: adjusted for inflation, the median hourly wage was lower in 2011 than it was a decade earlier, according to data from a forthcoming book by the Economic Policy Institute, ‘The State of Working America, 12th Edition.’ Good benefits are harder to come by, and people are staying longer in jobs that they want to leave, afraid that they will not be able to find something better.”
The Washington Post June 20, 2012 -
The 12th edition of “The State of Working America,” a book from the Economic Policy Institute, reports that more Americans are taking jobs they are overqualified for and being hurt by income difficulties.
MarketWatch June 20, 2012 -
The national unemployment rate rose to 8.2% in May as Silsby was graduating as one of 2.6 million who got bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees in the school year now ending. The non-partisan Economic Policy Institute called their labor market “grim” and said that over the previous year, unemployment among college graduates younger than 25 had averaged 9.4%, with an additional 19.1% in jobs for which they were overqualified.
Beneath this cascade of sobering statistics, a new pragmatism might be forming.
USA Today June 20, 2012 -
The cost of the Great Recession to their livelihoods is likely to continue for decades to come.
College students who graduated during the early 1980s economic downturn suffered wage losses of more than $100,000 during the next 15 years compared to those who came into the job market later in the decade, according to research by Yale School of Management economist Lisa Kahn.
“The group we’re seeing here is going to be hit harder,” said Heidi Shierholz, a market economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “This recession is deeper and longer.”
Bloomberg BusinessWeek June 15, 2012 -
To illustrate exactly how near to high heaven the Obama recovery stinks, Mitt Romney put this graph in his official Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth. It shows the Obama recovery losing nearly 1 million jobs in the 24 months after the end of the recession, clearly the worst in modern history.
But here is the same graph, via Josh Biven at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, adjusted for private sector jobs only. Note the subtle change in the three blue bars to the right. Obama’s recovery is suddenly the best in 20+ years. The key distinction between Romney’s graph and EPI’s graph is the public sector, which withered under Obama despite the stimulus.
This recovery stinks, okay? No debate there. But if Romney’s contention is that its stinking is qualitatively different from the stinking of the last two recoveries, this particular statistic doesn’t make his case.
The Atlantic June 15, 2012 -
Meanwhile, a separate government survey of establishment payrolls shows that the U.S. economy gained 800,000 jobs over the two years after the recession. The household survey measures employed people, while the establishment survey measures nonfarm payroll jobs.
“The gold standard for employment trends is simply the payroll survey, and I literally can’t recall anybody using the full-time number from the household survey to compare cyclical job-trends anytime before, and I’ve seen a lot of such comparisons,” said Josh Bivens, director of research and policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank based in Washington.
MarketWatch June 15, 2012 -
While employers looking to import lower skilled H-2B workers must at least advertise those jobs briefly locally, that is not true in many cases for other work visas and J-1 visas. Daniel Costa, an expert on the guest worker issue at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, is particularly critical of lax H-1B regulations.
“They are not required to test the labor market to see if there are able and available U.S. workers,” he says. “They can simply hire a foreign worker if they like and don’t ever have to advertise the job in the newspaper or online, even if the local unemployment rate is sky high.”
Costa says many U.S. citizen systems analysts, programmers and other workers in the computer field are unemployed, as as are many electrical engineers.
“The main argument for hiring guest workers is that there’s a labor shortage in these occupations ,” Costa says, “but if you look at any data, it’s clear that those claims are bogus.”
Palm Beach Post June 12, 2012 -
Take a look, would you, at this very fascinating chart via Media Matters but originated by the Economic Policy Institute on public-sector job growth during recent American recessions.
In each of the three previous recent recessions of 1981, 1990 and 2001, the number of public-sector jobs increased during the darkest days. Now, first of all: hey, isn’t it interesting that our three recent recessions started under Republican presidents? Huh.
At any rate, the chart shows you that in all those bleak periods, while the private sector was draining jobs, the public sector was gaining jobs. By about 1 percent in the 2001 recession, by 3 percent in the 1990 one, and by more than 3 percent in the 1981 one. Yes, as is often the case, Ronald Reagan was the most socialistic of the lot.
The Daily Beast June 12, 2012
