“While the private sector experienced a strong bounce-back” from the crash “due to large policy interventions, the public sector—particularly state and local government jobs—continues to fall behind,” Economic Policy Institute Senior Analyst Elise Gould tweeted. “Private-sector employment is 2.6% above pre-pandemic levels while state and local is down 2%.”
People’s World
March 17, 2023
Although more jobs were unionized, the share of workers represented by a union declined from 11.6 percent to 11.3 percent because nonunion jobs were added at a faster rate, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Labor Tribune
March 17, 2023
The reasons Black Americans have higher jobless rates than whites fall into several categories. The Economic Policy Institute reports that among the primary reasons are racism and single-adult households where one person tries to care for children and hold a full-time job simultaneously.
24/7 Wall Street
March 17, 2023
Growth in the number of people looking for work means the unemployment rate is rising for the right reasons, according to Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Marketplace
March 17, 2023
What’s happening now is a pushback from conservative organizations and red-state legislatures. “[A]ctivists have begun targeting local governments to create big government policy that could not survive at the state capitol,” said a 2015 op-ed in RedState, arguing states should pass preemption laws to protect businesses from excessive regulation in these cities. And by that point, states were already doing just that. A 2020 Economic Policy Institute analysis found the use of preemption was more prevalent in southern states.
FiveThirtyEight
March 17, 2023
These politicians are focused on protecting their wealthy donors, who pay less into Social Security than ever. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently found that as inequality increases, a record share of all earnings are above the $160,200 cap on Social Security contributions.
Fayette Tribune
March 17, 2023
The increase in income inequality is the main reason for the erosion in the share of income subject to payroll taxes, the Economic Policy Institute pointed out in a blog post in January. The cap rises at the same rate as the national average wage index, but people at the top have seen earnings grow faster than the national average and thus have captured a bigger share of total earnings. Raising the cap so that 90 percent of earnings were once again subject to payroll taxes would be in line with the intention of the 1977 reform. On the other hand, high earners get less out of Social Security than they pay into it. Such a change would make the deal for them even worse.
New York Times
March 17, 2023
Arora now hopes the project can help address widespread child care needs. In a recent West Michigan Works! survey of more than 1,400 people, more than three-quarters of respondents indicated that accessible and affordable child care is a barrier to employment. The average cost of infant care in Michigan is $10,861, or $905 a month, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute.
MiBiz: West Michigan Business News
March 17, 2023
Wages are also on the lower side versus competitors. According to a 2021 survey done by the nonprofit think tank, Economic Policy Institute, 92% of Dollar General workers earn less than $15 an hour. For comparison, 51% of workers earn below $15 at Walmart, 3% at Target, and 48% at Kroger. This data was based on a survey of 20,933 hourly service-sector workers.
Business Insider
March 17, 2023
And in 2022, the number of workers involved in major strikes surged to 120,600 over the prior year, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Economic Policy Institute. Still, it’s a significant decline from pre-pandemic levels in 2018 and 2019, EPI said.
USA Today
March 17, 2023