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:
States with highest uninsured rates are failing their residents : U.S. Census Bureau data show that the states with the highest rates of uninsured residents are the states that are most likely to be failing to set up exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. As much as 20% of the population in states like Florida, Alaska, Nevada and Texas currently lack insurance.
Apple continues to make iPhones under bad labor conditions : Despite a public commitment from Apple to reform working conditions in its supply chain, little progress has been made cutting back on abuse of labor laws and workers' rights.
Census data show SNAP more necessary than ever : Despite Republican attempts to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the latest Census data show that the program is more widely used and necessary than ever before.
Modest income gains for 2012 barely begin to make up for losses of Great Recession : In 2012, there were slight gains (about 1%) in income for non-elderly households, but incomes are still substantially lower than they were before the recession for all but the top 5% (overall, down 11.6% since 2000). Once elderly households are factored in, median household income declined last year.
Health insurance coverage for Americans improved last year : The number of uninsured Americans fell by more than half a million in 2012, but there are still 11 million more non-elderly Americans without insurance than there were in 2000.
Blacks and Hispanics are falling behind whites in retirement : The massive shift to 401(k) plans over the past two decades has meant that while the percentage of white workers who are covered by retirement plans has slightly increased (2%), both blacks (4%) and Hispanics (5%) have fallen further behind.
Level of job openings continues to stagnate : The percentage of total employment accounted for by new hires, a signal of the overall health of the job market, continues to be a very low level, 3.2% for the latest month recorded.
While the unemployment rate declined, labor force participation hit a new low : While the unemployment rate continued to decline, hitting 7.3%, the labor force participation rate hit a low since the Great Recession began, reaching 63.2%.
