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** Digesting and dealing with the COVID economy ([link removed])
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We need to take a “deep breath,” advises Economic Policy Institute economist Heidi Shierholz, to digest the numbers.
* More than 24 million workers filing for unemployment?
* Over nine million workers losing health insurance?
* Eighty percent of school children whose teachers are not proficient in using computers to teach?

These crazy large figures can be hard to process. In blog posts and media appearances, EPI’s experts put the numbers in context, explaining what they tell us about the breadth of distress and the policies needed to address that distress.


** More than one in seven U.S. workers—24 million—have applied for unemployment benefits ([link removed])
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From March 15 to April 18, more than 24 million U.S. workers applied for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits—not counting would-be applicants frozen out of overwhelmed systems. That 24 million‒plus number translates to more than one in seven workers losing their jobs, and it means that there were five times as many workers applying for unemployment in the last five weeks as there were during the worst five-week stretch of the Great Recession, notes EPI’s Heidi Shierholz in her blog post. Providing $500 billion in aid to states to expand use of work-sharing and support other programs is but one of many steps Congress still needs to take to alleviate the economic pain, she says. Read the blog post » ([link removed])
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** In the last five weeks, more than 24 million workers applied for unemployment insurance benefits
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** Media coverage on unemployment claims
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Reporting that the jobless crisis is worse than the numbers show, The New York Times ([link removed]) repeated Shierholz’s finding that just seven in 10 unemployment insurance applicants ([link removed]) are receiving benefits. That means millions of workers who have filed claims are still waiting for relief. | Jobless Numbers Are ‘Eye-Watering’ but Understate the Crisis ([link removed])
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The Fiscal Times ([link removed]) quoted Shierholz’s warning that “all else equal, job losses of this magnitude would translate into an unemployment rate of 18.3%” but that the official unemployment rate likely will not reflect jobless workers who “are unable to search for work during the lockdown.” | Another 4 Million Jobs Lost, Lifting Total to 26 Million Over Five Weeks ([link removed])


** Southern states had some of the biggest spikes in unemployment claims ([link removed])
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Mapping weekly unemployment insurance (UI) claims by state, EPI’s Jori Kandra and Julia Wolfe find initial claims tripling in Connecticut, Florida, and West Virginia for the week ending April 18. Of the 10 states with the largest percent increases in UI claims in the week ending April 18 relative to the pre‒coronavirus period, eight were in the South. Read the blog post » ([link removed])


** First jobs, then health insurance: 9.2 million jobless workers likely lost their coverage ([link removed])
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Big job loss numbers mean big losses in employer-sponsored health insurance. EPI’s Ben Zipperer and Josh Bivens looked at the estimated 45.7% of workers in industries experiencing unemployment claims who get health coverage through their job and translated that to 9.2 million workers at high risk of losing their employer-provided health insurance during the four-week stretch from March 15 to April 11. A map in their blog post breaks down the health coverage losses by state. To lessen these terrifying losses, policymakers should extend Medicare and Medicaid to people losing their jobs during the pandemic and—long-term—replace our current inefficient system ([link removed]) of tying health insurance benefits to employment, they write. Read the blog post » ([link removed])


** (Video) Coronavirus: Millions risk losing employer-provided health insurance, study reveals ([link removed])
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In his livestream interview on Yahoo Finance ([link removed]) , Josh Bivens explained that the widespread loss of health insurance will “drag on the recovery” as people spend more of their income on health care costs. Policymakers can help fix this by opening enrollment for Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, extending Medicaid to people who have lost their insurance, and introducing a public option in the ACA exchanges. Watch the video » ([link removed])


** Media coverage on the loss of health insurance
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A Washington Post ([link removed]) story about health clinics becoming overwhelmed with patients who are newly uninsured cited EPI’s estimate ([link removed]) that 9.2 million U.S. workers were at high risk of having lost health care coverage. | First, the Coronavirus Pandemic Took Their Jobs. Then, It Wiped Out Their Health Insurance. ([link removed])
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Noting the surging support for Medicare for All as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the U.S., Newsweek ([link removed]) cited EPI’s finding ([link removed]) that 9.2 million Americans likely lost their health insurance coverage as unemployment surged nationwide. | Bernie Sanders Says Pandemic Made Clear the ‘Irrationality of the Current System’ ([link removed])
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The Hill ([link removed]) cited EPI’s estimate of 9.2 million American workers likely losing their employer-based health insurance in an article about how 18- to 34-year-olds are more likely to avoid care for coronavirus-related symptoms or to know someone avoiding care than Americans in older age groups. | Poll: Young Adults Most Likely to Cite Cost in Delaying Treatment for COVID-19 Symptoms ([link removed])


** Warning: Many students don’t have what they need to learn online ([link removed])
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EPI analysis of data from the most comprehensive study of primary and secondary education in the country shows that 15.6% of students don’t have a computer or laptop for school work, 48.7% don’t have experience using their home internet for school work, and 80.7% don’t have teachers who rated themselves already proficient in using computers in instruction. For students who are poor, those shares are 23.7% without a computer/laptop, 53.6% without experience doing school work online at home, and 79.7% without teachers who rated themselves already proficient in using computers in instruction. Read the blog post » ([link removed])


** More EPI in the news
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To stabilize the economy, Congress should replace the failing Payroll Protection Program with direct paycheck support, write EPI President Thea Lee, Congressional Progressive Caucus Center Executive Director Liz Watson, and Roosevelt Institute CEO Felicia Wong in an op-ed in Time ([link removed]) . Direct paycheck support policies have already become standard in the Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. | Why the U.S. Government Should be Guaranteeing Paychecks ([link removed])
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Appearing on PBS NewsHour ([link removed]) , EPI’s Elise Gould explained that women are being disproportionately affected by layoffs in the coronavirus economy, citing her research ([link removed]) showing that women make up a greater share of the newly jobless than their share in the workforce overall. | The Pandemic has Wiped Out Nearly All Job Gains Since Recession — and It’s Not Done Yet ([link removed])
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EPI’s Heidi Shierholz urged political leaders to let public health officials, not economists like her, decide when and how to reopen the economy. “Research shows that places that commit to aggressive social distancing measures earlier and longer do not have worse economic outcomes during pandemics—if anything, they grow faster once the threat of the virus is over than places that enacted measures too late or repealed them too early,” she told The Guardian ([link removed]) . | When is the Right Time to Reopen the US Economy? Our Panelists’ Verdict ([link removed])
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EPI President Thea Lee warned that reopening the economy without adequate testing would especially harm “low-wage workers, women, people of color, immigrants, and the elderly” who are “concentrated in the riskiest jobs, with the least financial cushion, and the least likely to have employer-provided benefits or protections.” | Liberty or Death is a Perilous Policy for a Pandemic ([link removed])
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In her op-ed in the New York Times ([link removed]) , Violet Moya describes how she and her fellow part-time workers suffer from a second-class status that extends from a lack of benefits to unstable schedules to being paid 30% less ([link removed]) per hour than full-timers doing the same thing—a pay penalty documented by EPI. | Sephora Never Valued Workers Like Me ([link removed])
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A photo essay on New York’s beleaguered public hospitals notes that New York’s Latinos are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, citing EPI’s analysis on the small share of Latinos ([link removed]) —only one in six—who can work from home. | The Epicenter: A Week Inside New York’s Public Hospitals. ([link removed])
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CNN’s ([link removed]) coverage of the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on African American communities cited EPI’s finding that while about 29% of white workers are able to work at home, less than one in five black workers ([link removed]) can. | Black Grocery Workers Feel Increasingly Vulnerable to Coronavirus ([link removed])
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** What we’re reading
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**
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Spotlighting Need for Response ‘At the Scale of This Catastrophe’ ([link removed])

New jobless claims have “sparked yet another wave of demands for the Trump administration and Congress to respond to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic in ways that actually serve the needs of people hardest hit by the crisis.” Read more » ([link removed])

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“Deep breath”: Digesting and dealing with the COVID economy
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