As documented by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for recent graduates ages 16-24 increased by 16%, going from from 8.4 percent to 24.4 in the year between spring 2019 and 2020. These numbers are even greater for Black people, which is why Polly Irungu, founder of Black Women Photographers, stepped in.
Essence
June 25, 2021
With this significant expansion, “what we’ve done in this recession is very different” than in the past, said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist for Obama administration’s labor department and now director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. Now, “even though the labor market is improving, there’s still a long way to go,” she said. Shierholz said cutting benefits will disproportionately harm Black and Latino workers, who have higher rates of unemployment. She said there is “no economy-wide labor shortage.” While there is some evidence of a shortage in leisure and hospitality, it is “isolated” and has not extended to other sectors, she said. “The very, very low-wage jobs are the ones where there are lots of openings now,” Shierholz said.
The Baltimore Sun
June 25, 2021
According to a 2019 estimate by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), U.S. employers spend nearly $340 million per year on union avoidance services. The EPI also found that by the early 2000s, about 75% of all employers facing union elections involving 50 or more voters retained a union avoidance consultant.
Salon.com
June 25, 2021
The NRF’s survey found retail chains fired an average of 559 employees for stealing in 2019, and prosecuted an average of 156, while research by the Economic Policy Institute found employers are rarely prosecuted and underfunded labor regulators often lack the ability to enforce wage laws.
Business Insider
June 25, 2021
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they were moving on to better jobs — wages across industries haven’t meaningfully risen, meaning workers who quit aren’t, as a whole, making more money, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told Vox: “Really key wage measures are just not showing strong growth.”
Money isn’t the only factor, either. Some retail workers are leaving their jobs for roles that may have better conditions — for example, jobs in construction or warehouses where they may not have to deal with difficult customers. But some say it will take more than the fluctuations of a post-pandemic job market to really give workers meaningful power, in retail or elsewhere. Unless the surge in quitting leads to greater unionization and policy shifts like a higher minimum wage, Shierholz said, “it’s not going to be a lasting change.”
VOX
June 25, 2021
In their report, the Economic Policy Institute, NELP, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth recommended a range of reforms, such as permanently expanding eligibility to include gig workers and contractors; automatically extending benefits during recessions beyond the 26 weeks provided by most states; and increasing minimum benefit levels.
The Associated Press
June 25, 2021
Despite expected strong job growth and recovery as society opens back up and vaccine availability is more widespread, there needs to be an active effort to make jobs in the care industry equitable, said Dr. Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. She noted that good job growth does not necessarily mean an equitable economic recovery.
“We know that more than 90% of care jobs are held by women, over half of care jobs are held by women of color,” Shierholz said. “On an hourly basis, care workers are paid about three quarters of what other workers with similar demographic characteristics – who do other jobs – are paid. Care workers are much more likely to be poor or near-poor. It’s difficult to think of a better strategy for an equitable recovery than making sure these care jobs are good jobs.”
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
June 25, 2021
Left-of-center economists counter the problem isn’t about labor supply. Low-wage sectors are seeing stronger job growth than high-wage sectors, which shouldn’t be the case if unemployment benefits were holding back hiring, argues Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, in a recent editorial.
She said the states that have ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early in response to complaints from employers stand to lose $22 billion in aid and slow their economic recovery. Colorado instead has tried a carrot approach, offering workers who find a new job a payment of up to $1,600.
Denver Post
June 25, 2021
The Economic Policy Institute did find signs of short-term labor shortages in the hospitality and leisure sectors. According to the institute’s own analysis though, these shortages are unlikely to spill into the larger economy. A recent report by the economic think tank suggests a continuation of unemployment insurance and other forms of direct assistance.
Instead of cutting benefits, the Economic Policy Institute found increasing wages in the restaurant and leisure industries was a natural way to bring workers back. The government’s April jobs report showed employers are doing just that: wages are rising as employers try to attract more workers.
“The rapid wage growth of the past three months is exactly what is supposed to happen when there is a sectoral imbalance between supply and demand,” according to a post on the institute’s Working Economics Blog.
KNX News Radio
June 25, 2021
“Workers in some of these low-wage industries are demanding and getting better pay,” said Lawrence Mishel, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Mr. Mishel said the premium that manufacturers pay has fallen since the 1980s and 1990s. Mr. Mishel attributed the decline to global competition, outsourcing, lower unionization rates and wider use of contractors. Mr. Mishel said jobs in manufacturing in many cases still offer better healthcare and retirement benefits than some other industries.
The Wall Street Journal
June 25, 2021
Manufacturing executives told The Journal that as well as struggling to find workers, they’re also being hit by higher prices of raw materials including fuel, lumber, and packaging amid the current shipping crisis, making it harder for them to afford new staff perks.
Some restaurants have been hiking up prices to offset the higher wages. But Paul Isely, a business professor at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, told The Journal that it’s harder for manufacturers to raise prices because they have to compete with factories around the world, not just nearby restaurants.
Lawrence Mishel, an economist at left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, told the publication that global competition, outsourcing and contractors, and lower unionization rates were also causing manufacturing jobs to lose their wage premium.
As a result of all these changes, the proportion of US workers employed in the manufacturing industries was shrinking. Less than 9% of US workers are currently employed by manufacturers, The Journal reported. In the early 1980s this was more than 20%.
Business Insider
June 25, 2021
The missing Black father trope is largely due to deliberate and racist policy decisions. According to a 2016 Economic Policy Institute study, up to 1 in 10 Black children has an incarcerated parent. The ugly reality of mass incarceration in the US is that a huge proportion of those behind bars are convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. and while Black and white people use drugs roughly at the same rates, Black folks are almost six times as likely to be imprisoned for it.
MSNBC
June 25, 2021
Companies typically contend they use arbitration because it saves everyone involved time and money. But whether consumers actually fare better is disputed. The Economic Policy Institute found that consumers only won monetary relief in 9% of the arbitration cases it studied.
…
More than half, or about 60 million American workers, were required to use arbitration to settle disputes as of 2017, including when fighting against serious claims such as discrimination, civil rights violations and sexual harassment, EPI found. If nothing changes, the nonprofit predicts about 80% of workers will be covered by arbitration agreements by 2024.
CNBC
June 25, 2021
In March, the pro-union Economic Policy Institute reported that, since Trump ordered the tariffs in 2018, American steelmakers had vowed to invest nearly $16 billion in upgraded facilities that promise to reduce carbon emissions. EPI estimates those projects will create 3,200 new jobs in steel production.
90.5 WESA
June 25, 2021
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 60% of minimum-wage earners in the United States are older than 25, nearly 60% are women, 51% are people of color, and 25% support children.
Delaware Business Times
June 25, 2021
In its 2019 series, “The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse Than We Thought,” the Economic Policy Institute noted the United States is seeing falling enrollments in teacher prep programs. From the 2008-2009 to 2015-2016 school years, there was a 15.4% drop in the number of education degrees awarded and a 27.4% drop in the number of people who completed a teacher preparation program.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
June 25, 2021
With official unemployment at 5.8%, some have raised questions about claims of labor shortages, suggesting open positions should be filled by the ranks of unemployed Americans before raising the visa cap.
“In a moment where we have millions of workers laid off, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense,” said Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute.
The H-2B statute specifies that temporary worker visas should be authorized “if unemployed persons capable of performing such service or labor cannot be found in this country.” Costa noted that most of the major H-2B occupations and industries still have rates of unemployment that are higher than pre-pandemic levels. Many have renewed demand for workers, including landscaping, food service, housekeeping, construction and amusement and recreation attendants remain below pre-pandemic levels.
“I do think the priority is getting U.S. workers back to work before we use a program for labor shortages. But I think you can see why employers would turn to this program,” Costa said. “If you don’t want to raise your wages to $15 an hour to attract workers, then the H-2B program is one option.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group
June 25, 2021
However, for newly empowered workers, the honeymoon days are likely numbered. Economist Heidi Shierholz cautions against reading too much into the data from April, “which is a very, very long time ago in COVID terms,” she said. In May, wage growth slowed considerably and employers added nearly 600,000 jobs — hardly a sign of a long-standing shortage, Shierholz pointed out.
The economy is still 7.6 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level, and despite all of April’s quits, the month ended with half a million more unemployed job seekers than open positions. How long it will take for the other 7 million to return is an open question. In the meantime, those who can work are in the drivers’ seat, enjoying the ride while they can.
CBS Moneywatch
June 25, 2021
These prospective departures threaten a relatively new feature of government: diversity. In Virginia, the public payroll — state and local — is nearly 58% female, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. One in five employees is Black; one in 10, Hispanic or Asian.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 25, 2021
Black households had $8,762 in cash or equivalent liquid assets, compared with $49,529 for white households in 2016, an Economic Policy Institute analysis of government data found.
Axios
June 25, 2021
“I think that there were many low-wage jobs that were lost and many people may not have wanted to have the job before and are now trying to see their options,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute who cautioned that while the coronavirus has highlighted just how precarious worker protections can be when it comes to health and child care, she doesn’t expect these conditions to change drastically in a post-pandemic economy unless major policy changes are enacted.
PBS Newshour
June 25, 2021
Demonstrators carried signs reading “We Can’t Wait for Jobs” and “We Can’t Wait for Citizenship” at the rally organized by the Center for Popular Democracy, Unemployed Action, Make the Road, and other national groups that are calling on lawmakers “to act quickly and boldly to enact transformative changes for an equitable economy,” according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which released a report on the need to overhaul the unemployment system to coincide with the day of action.
Common Dreams
June 25, 2021
As documented by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for recent graduates ages 16-24 increased by 16%, going from from 8.4 percent to 24.4 in the year between spring 2019 and 2020. These numbers are even greater for Black people, which is why Polly Irungu, founder of Black Women Photographers, stepped in.
Essence
June 25, 2021
With this significant expansion, “what we’ve done in this recession is very different” than in the past, said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist for Obama administration’s labor department and now director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. Now, “even though the labor market is improving, there’s still a long way to go,” she said. Shierholz said cutting benefits will disproportionately harm Black and Latino workers, who have higher rates of unemployment. She said there is “no economy-wide labor shortage.” While there is some evidence of a shortage in leisure and hospitality, it is “isolated” and has not extended to other sectors, she said. “The very, very low-wage jobs are the ones where there are lots of openings now,” Shierholz said.
The Baltimore Sun
June 25, 2021
According to a 2019 estimate by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), U.S. employers spend nearly $340 million per year on union avoidance services. The EPI also found that by the early 2000s, about 75% of all employers facing union elections involving 50 or more voters retained a union avoidance consultant.
Salon.com
June 25, 2021
The NRF’s survey found retail chains fired an average of 559 employees for stealing in 2019, and prosecuted an average of 156, while research by the Economic Policy Institute found employers are rarely prosecuted and underfunded labor regulators often lack the ability to enforce wage laws.
Business Insider
June 25, 2021
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they were moving on to better jobs — wages across industries haven’t meaningfully risen, meaning workers who quit aren’t, as a whole, making more money, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told Vox: “Really key wage measures are just not showing strong growth.”
Money isn’t the only factor, either. Some retail workers are leaving their jobs for roles that may have better conditions — for example, jobs in construction or warehouses where they may not have to deal with difficult customers. But some say it will take more than the fluctuations of a post-pandemic job market to really give workers meaningful power, in retail or elsewhere. Unless the surge in quitting leads to greater unionization and policy shifts like a higher minimum wage, Shierholz said, “it’s not going to be a lasting change.”
VOX
June 25, 2021
In their report, the Economic Policy Institute, NELP, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth recommended a range of reforms, such as permanently expanding eligibility to include gig workers and contractors; automatically extending benefits during recessions beyond the 26 weeks provided by most states; and increasing minimum benefit levels.
The Associated Press
June 25, 2021