EPI in the news

• There are better ways to structure unemployment benefits, but they will probably never happen.

  “It’s one of the most effective things we’ve seen from the CARES Act, but it’s not perfect,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and former chief economist at the Department of Labor in the Obama administration.

  “That extra $600 is getting a ton of money into the economy,” said Shierholz. For example, people who claim in Mississippi get an average of $813, up from $213. That substantial extra payment stops at the end of July.

  Marketplace | July 17, 2020
• Enhanced unemployment insurance likely to expire during COVID-19 aid talks

  “You have people who get thrown into these terrible situations because of the timing, because of the lapse that is absolutely unnecessary,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

  The Hill | July 17, 2020
• Wisconsin Unemployment Rate Down To 8.5%

  The Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and determined there are approximately three unemployed workers for every one job opening in the country right now.

  Urban Milwaukee | July 17, 2020
• Pandemic upends child care for parents

  Last year, the Economic Policy Institute found the annual child care cost for a 4-year-old in North Carolina was more than $8,000, with infant care costing $9,480 a year — more than in-state college tuition.

  Blue Ridge Now | July 17, 2020
• Senate Democrats propose $350B in aid for communities of color

  African Americans are also more likely to work front-line jobs deemed “essential,” during the pandemic, have higher rates of preexisting conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and diabetes, and live in more densely populated housing, according to the Economic Policy Institute. African Americans make up 12.5% of the U.S. population but account for 22.4% of COVID-19 deaths, EPI said in a June report.

  Breitbart | July 17, 2020
• Unemployment Compensation Runs Out This Month. Will Congress #SaveThe600?

  That’s why the NELP— along with the Center for Popular Democracy, MomsRising, the Groundwork Collaborative, and the Economic Policy Institute—are calling on Congress to #SaveThe600 by extending the PUC program.

  Ms. | July 17, 2020
• Unions Press Senators To Extend $600 Unemployment Payments As Clock Ticks Down

  Department of Labor figures indicate that as of July 11, as many as 36 million American workers were either collecting unemployment, waiting to receive benefits they’d been approved for, or had recently applied for them, Economic Policy Institute senior economist Heidi Shierholz wrote July 16.

  Labor Press | July 17, 2020

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