52 min listen
What's Really Going on in the Labor Market -- feat. Heidi Shierholz
What's Really Going on in the Labor Market -- feat. Heidi Shierholz
ratings:
Length:
44 minutes
Released:
May 14, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
The April jobs data released by the Department of Labor last week spurred an avalanche of hysteria and conservative hand-wringing about supposedly widespread labor shortages, with many on the right pointing to pandemic jobless benefits as the bogeyman. In a particularly troubling move, on Wednesday of this week, 12 Republican governors announced they’d be ending access to pandemic unemployment benefits in their states. To help unpack the state of the labor market as the COVID-19 economic recovery continues—and the role of pandemic unemployment insurance in the recovery—Rebecca sat down with Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, former chief economist at the Department of Labor under President Obama, for a reality check on the jobs data and what they really tell us about the kind of policies we need at this point in the ongoing recovery. More from Heidi on all this: https://twitter.com/hshierholz/status/1392272908618145796 https://www.epi.org/blog/restaurant-labor-shortages-show-little-sign-of-going-economywide-policymakers-must-not-rein-in-stimulus-or-unemployment-benefits/
Released:
May 14, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Help Is On the Way: With President Joe Biden’s signature, the American Rescue Plan Act became law on Thursday of this week. This wide-ranging package of relief measures—which despite garnering widespread bipartisan support among voters, passed both chambers of... by OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas