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Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her insights on today’s release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for December. Read the full thread here.
Over the past six months, core inflation has risen exactly in line with the Federal Reserve’s long-run 2% inflation target. When this key measure of inflation (which excludes volatile food and energy prices) is neither above nor below this target, this is a good sign that the Fed’s policy should be roughly neutral—aiming to neither increase nor depress economic activity.
Unions and collective action have long served as a vehicle for ensuring prosperity for working families and creating a more equal economy. Despite these critical functions, workers engaged in collective action, like strikes, have historically been barred from accessing safety net programs like unemployment insurance (UI).
Earlier today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the share of workers represented by unions was 11.2% in 2023, down slightly from 11.3% in 2022. This news of stagnation is especially sobering for the American labor movement because the past year was full of major victories and growing momentum.
This is an excerpt from an op-ed that originally ran in CNN. Read the full op-ed here.
2024 is the last opportunity for state and local governments to make spending decisions on funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Many states, localities, and school districts still have considerable unspent ARPA funds. At a time when the public sector has still not fully recovered from the job losses of the pandemic, governments should use remaining ARPA funds to shore up public services and invest in education.
In 2023, the issue of child labor re-emerged as a national crisis.
Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her insights on the jobs report released this morning, which showed 216,000 jobs added in December. Read the full thread here.
Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her insights on today’s release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Read the full thread here.
On January 1, 22 states will increase their minimum wages, raising pay for an estimated 9.9 million workers. In total, workers will receive $6.95 billion in additional wages from state minimum wage increases. In addition, 38 cities and counties will increase their minimum wages on January 1 above their state’s wage floors, adding to the number of workers likely to see increased earnings.