January, 17 2012, 02:38pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115
Statement on New Jersey's Approval of Work Sharing
WASHINGTON
CEPR co-director Dean Baker issued the following statement after the state of New Jersey adopted a work-sharing law:
"Last week, New Jersey became the 6th state in the country to adopt a work-sharing law since the onset of the recession. These laws modify the unemployment insurance system so that workers who have had their hours cut can get partial unemployment benefits to limit the loss of income. The point is to give employers an incentive to reduce work hours rather than lay off workers. New Jersey's action brings the total number of states that allow work sharing as a part of their unemployment insurance program to 24. One other state, Indiana, has a bill before its legislature with strong bi-partisan support that may pass this year. Officials in several other states are considering similar measures.
"The motivation for these laws is quite simple. The standard unemployment insurance (UI) system effectively encourages employers to lay off workers rather than shorten work hours. If a worker is laid off, she is typically able to receive close to half of her wages, with the duration of benefits lasting for up to 99 weeks. On the other hand, if an employer attempts to meet a shortfall in demand by having her workers put in fewer hours, the traditional UI system offsets none of the loss in income.
"While the traditional system encourages layoffs rather than a reduction in hours per worker, from a social standpoint, the latter would generally be better. The worst outcome is for a worker to be unemployed for a long period of time. During an extended layoff, workers are not keeping up their skills and often lose contact with the labor force. They may find it difficult or even impossible to find new employment.
"On the other hand, if a worker stays employed by working fewer hours, she will remain part of the labor force. They are continuing to upgrade their skills and keep up with whatever changes are taking place at the workplace.
"Systems of work sharing have been quite successful in protecting workers from the downturn in other countries, most notably Germany. The unemployment rate in Germany today is more than a percentage point below its pre-recession level. This is in spite of the fact that growth in Germany has been no more rapid since the downturn than growth in the United States. The main difference has been that the government has encouraged firms to meet the reduced demand for labor through cutbacks in hours rather than laying off workers.
"The increased adoption of work-sharing laws in the United States is a positive development. If more states adopted such laws and the take-up rate could be increased in the states that already have the laws, there would be substantial potential for lowering unemployment. Every month, close to 2 million workers are dismissed or laid off. If just 5 percent of these jobs could be preserved through work-sharing programs, it would be equivalent to creating an additional 1.2 million jobs a year.
"If President Obama and other political leaders tout the benefits of work sharing, it will increase familiarity with the program and encourage more employers to take advantage of it. State UI systems should also allow flexibility in the application of the rules so that more employers will see work sharing as a viable alternative to layoffs. Congress could also approve the Layoff Prevention Act of 2011, sponsored by Jack Reed in the Senate and Rosa DeLauro in the House. This bill would provide additional funding for the work-sharing programs already in place and also provide seed money for states seeking to establish systems."
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.
(202) 293-5380LATEST NEWS
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Two Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden Thursday, urging him to place more checks on potential nuclear weapons use by mandating that a president must obtain authorization from Congress before initiating a nuclear first strike.
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The two write that time is of the essence: "As Donald Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office, it is more important than ever to take the power to start a nuclear war out of the hands of a single individual and ensure that Congress's constitutional role is respected and fulfilled."
The Constitution vests Congress, not the president, with the power to declare war (though presidents have used military force without getting the OK from Congress on multiple occasions in modern history, according to the National Constitution Center).
During the Cold War, when nuclear weapons policy was produced, speed was seen as essential to deterrence, according to Jon Wolfsthal, the director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists, who wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post last year that makes a similar argument to Markey and Lieu.
"There is no reason today to rely on speedy decision-making during situations in which the United States might launch first. Even as relations with Moscow are at historic lows, we are worlds removed from the Cold War's dominant knife's-edge logic," he wrote.
While nuclear tensions today may not be quite as high as they were during the apex of the Cold War, fears of nuclear confrontation have been heightened due to poor relations between the United States and Russia over the ongoing war in Ukraine, among other issues. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for potential nuclear weapons use not long after the U.S. greenlit Ukraine's use of U.S.-supplied long range weapons in its fight against Russia.
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The September 29 attack "destroyed the house of the Syrian al-Shaar family, killing all nine members of the family who were sleeping inside," the report states.
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On October 16, Israel bombed the Nabatieh municipal complex, killing Mayor Ahmad Khalil and 10 other people.
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Survivor Jinane Hijazi told Amnesty: "I've lost everything; my entire family, my parents, my siblings, my daughter. I wish I had died that day too."
As the report notes:
A fragment of the munition found at the site of the attack was analyzed by an Amnesty International weapons expert and based upon its size, shape, and the scalloped edges of the heavy metal casing, identified as most likely a MK-80 series aerial bomb, which would mean it was at least a 500-pound bomb. The United States is the primary supplier of these types of munitions to Israel.
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Guevara Rosas said: "These attacks must be investigated as war crimes. The Lebanese government must urgently call for a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism into the alleged violations and crimes committed by all parties in this conflict. It must also grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Rome Statute crimes committed on Lebanese territory."
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Last month, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel's 433-day Gaza onslaught, which has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in the embattled enclave.
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Echoing recent warnings from economists, business leaders, news reporting, and immigrant rights groups, Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee detailed Thursday how President-elect Donald Trump's planned mass deportations "would deliver a catastrophic blow to the U.S. economy."
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Citing recent research by the American Immigration Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the JEC report warns that depending on how many immigrants are forced out of the country, Trump's deportations could:
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Highlighting how mass deportations would harm not only undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens, the report explains that construction worker losses would "make housing even harder to build, raising its cost," and "reduce the supply of farmworkers who keep Americans fed as well as the supply of home health aides at a time when more Americans are aging and requiring assistance."
In addition to reducing home care labor, Trump's deportation plan would specifically harm seniors by reducing money for key government benefits that only serve U.S. citizens. The report references estimates that it "would cut $23 billion in funds for Social Security and $6 billion from Medicare each year because these workers would no longer pay into these programs."
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who chairs the JEC, said Thursday that "as a son of an immigrant, I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, and how much they're willing to give back. They are the backbone of our economy and the driving force behind our nation's growth and prosperity."
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Along with laying out the economic toll of Trump's promised deportations, the JEC report makes the case that "providing a pathway to citizenship is good economics. Immigrants are helping meet labor demand while also demonstrating that more legal pathways to working in the United States are needed to meet this demand."
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The JEC report followed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that explored how mass deportations would not only devastate the U.S. economy but also harm the armed forces and tear apart American families.
In a statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America's Voice, thanked Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) "for calling this important discussion together and shining a spotlight on the potential damage."
Cárdenas pointed out that her group has spent months warning about how Trump's plan would "cripple communities and spike inflation," plus cause "tremendous human suffering as American citizens are ripped from their families, as parents are separated from their children, or as American citizens are deported by their own government."
"Trump and his allies have said it will be 'bloody,' that 'nobody is off the table,' and that 'you have to send them all back,'" she noted, arguing that the Republican plan will "set us back on both border control and public safety."
Cárdenas concluded that "America needs a serious immigration reform proposal—with pathways to legal status and controlled and orderly legal immigration—which recognize[s] immigrants are essential for America's future."
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