Areas of expertise
Labor policy • Wage inequality • Unemployment insurance • Long-term unemployment • Labor force participation • Minimum wage • Overtime
Biography
Heidi Shierholz leads EPI’s policy team, which monitors wage and employment policies coming out of Congress and the administration and advances a worker-first policy agenda. Throughout her career, Shierholz has educated policymakers, journalists, and the public about the effects of economic policies on low- and middle-income families. Her research and insights on labor and employment policy, the effects of automation on the labor market, wage stagnation, inequality, and many other topics routinely shape policy proposals and inform economic news coverage. Her work has been cited in many broadcast, radio, print, and online news outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and HuffPost.
Shierholz was an economist at EPI from 2007 to 2014 and she rejoined EPI in 2017. From 2014 to 2017, she served the Obama administration as chief economist at the Department of Labor. She worked with Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and other department leaders to develop and execute initiatives to boost workers’ rights, wages, and benefits; to protect workers’ savings, and to increase workplace safety. She also provided economic analysis on the wages of jobs added during the recovery, brought heightened attention to the need for paid family leave, and fought for new regulations guaranteeing overtime pay for millions of workers and paid sick leave for over a million federal contract workers.
Prior to joining EPI in 2007, Shierholz was assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto. Shierholz commutes to work on a steel-framed bicycle and in her—limited—free time tends to her beehives.
Education
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan
M.A., Economics, University of Michigan
M.S., Statistics, Iowa State University
B.A., Mathematics, Grinnell College
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News from EPI › Two months of gains, but a huge jobs deficit remains, and deepening pain is on the horizon: Congress needs to act
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Nearly 11% of the workforce is out of work with no reasonable chance of getting called back to a prior job
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More than three months in, job losses remain at historic levels: Over one in five workers are either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to get on
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A quarter of a year in, job losses remain at historic levels: More than one in five workers are either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to get on
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Three months in, the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic continues: More than one in five workers are either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to get on
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The U.S. economy remains in an enormous jobs deficit: The labor market was down 15.9 million jobs at the end of April (JOLTS data), and down 19.6 million at the middle of May (jobs data)
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Close to one in four workers are either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to receive them: Congress must take action
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EPI testimony regarding Title IV of the CARES Act: Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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More than one in five workers are either receiving unemployment benefits or waiting for approval: Congress must do much, much more
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Nearly one in four workers has applied for unemployment benefits: Congress must do much, much more
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The coronavirus recession will become a long depression unless federal policymakers act now
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What to watch for in tomorrow’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data release: A sharp fall in job openings and hires
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In the last eight weeks, more than one in five workers applied for state unemployment insurance benefits: Congress must act
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Domestic workers chartbook: A comprehensive look at the demographics, wages, benefits, and poverty rates of the professionals who care for our family members and clean our homes
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Nearly one in five workers applied for state unemployment insurance benefits in the last seven weeks: Congress must act to mitigate harm from unprecedented joblessness
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The extra $600 in unemployment insurance has been the best response yet to the economic shock of the coronavirus and should be extended
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Nearly 28 million workers applied for unemployment insurance benefits in the last six weeks: Congress must act to mitigate harm from unprecedented joblessness
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The next coronavirus relief package should provide aid to state and local governments, protect employed and unemployed workers, and invest in our democracy
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In the last five weeks, more than 24 million workers applied for unemployment insurance benefits
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The extreme jobless numbers will lead to a jump in the unemployment rate, but that won’t tell the whole story
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News from EPI › In the last four weeks, more than 20 million workers applied for unemployment insurance benefits
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News from EPI › 16.8 million apply for unemployment benefits in three weeks: The labor market has been upended.
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A ‘phase four’ relief and recovery package should provide economic assistance to state and local governments, extended unemployment benefits, and better protections for workers and jobs
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News from EPI › A portrait of disaster: Initial UI claims jump from 211,000 to 6.6 million in three weeks
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Policymakers twice missed the chance to avert widespread job loss, now they should act to avoid more layoffs
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Which data to watch and not watch this week: Watch Thursday’s unemployment insurance claims, not Friday’s jobs day numbers
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News from EPI › Unemployment insurance claims jumped nearly 1,500% in two weeks: I have been a labor economist for a very long time and have never seen anything like this
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Despite some good provisions, the CARES Act has glaring flaws and falls short of fully protecting workers during the coronavirus crisis
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The coronavirus economic policy response must include relief and redistribution now and major demand stimulus once the crisis passes
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Here are safeguards needed in bailout packages to protect working people and fight corporate greed