Economic News Roundup
The Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) has released important research about the economy in the past few weeks. Here's a look at some of the key pieces it uncovered about the U.S. economy.
Six Trends in the Jobs Numbers That Are Due to Weak Hiring : Weak hiring has caused a number of concerns for the economy, including elevated unemployment and underemployment, depressed labor force participation, elevated long-term unemployment, depressed wage growth and disproportionate job growth in low-wage industries.
For States, Investing in Education Is the Key to Economic Prosperity : There is a strong link between the educational level of a state's workforce and the productivity and wages of the state. Expanding access to high-quality education strengthens a state's overall economy and creates more economic opportunity than anything else the state government can do.
Roughly One in Five Hispanic and Black Workers Are “Underemployed” : Nearly 19% of Hispanic workers and more than 22% of African American workers are qualified as underemployed. Underemployment includes those who are part of the official unemployment rate (jobless workers who report they are actively seeking work), those who are working part-time but want to work full-time and those who have given up actively seeking work in the past year.
Slow Wage-Growth Just One More Sign of How Big a Problem the Profit-Biased Recovery Is : Josh Bivens notes the key reason most Americans aren't feeling the recovery is that the focus on driving profits has been at the expense of workers and their wages.
To Work with Dignity: The Unfinished March Toward a Decent Minimum Wage : While one of the key demands of the 1968 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was an increase in the minimum wage so that workers could "live in dignity," the United States actually has seen a decline in the real minimum wage since then.
For Public Schools, Segregation Then, Segregation Since: Education and the Unfinished March : Despite Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for an end to school segregation in 1968, African American students are more segregated than they were 40 years ago. Policymakers today largely ignore integration as a substantive policy goal.
Broken Promises and Continuing Worker Abuses as Apple and its Suppliers Miss Deadline : Apple and the companies that make up its supply chain have failed to live up to the promises they made in 2012 to improve its labor rights record. The company continues to have (or allow) problems with unpaid compensation, inadequate wages, illegal overtime and violations of workers’ rights to freedom of association.
Low-Wage Workers Are Older Than You Think : Despite attempts by conservative pro-business interests to paint low-wage workers as not in need of more income, the reality is that 88% of workers who would benefit from increasing the wage are older than 20 years old and one-third are older than 40. Most low-wage workers are adults who rely upon their low wages to live.
