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Discussion Paper
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation and Wage Replacement Rates
When coronavirus swept through the country in early March, the United States saw a public health crisis like no other in living memory. Shelter-in-place orders that were implemented to keep communities safe from coronavirus had another impact, a halt in most economic activity. Consumer spending dropped 6.9 percent in March year-over-year, falling to a 13.6 percent year-over-year decline in April. Personal income was down 2.2 percent in March, but, due to government programs such as increased unemployment insurance and the stimulus checks, up 10.5 percent in April, despite a record number of ...
Discussion Paper
Transitioning from Hospitality to Health Care Occupations
The job losses and unemployment claims caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are unrivaled in modern times. Despite record job growth in June and a decline in unemployment, the U.S. economy remains at great risk. Although many furloughed workers have returned to their jobs, millions of workers have been laid off permanently. Many of the regained jobs were in industry sectors most affected by the initial shutdown, such as bars and restaurants and hospitality and tourism. Since the U.S. Department of Labor's June Employment Situation Summary was released, however, COVID-19 cases have spiked in many ...
Discussion Paper
Rework America Alliance: Helping Workers Move into Good Jobs
We see the current situation as a call to action—and an unparalleled opportunity to advance more effective and equitable systems to connect people to opportunity. Seizing this opportunity will require building new partnerships improving training systems, and prototyping new models of action. As such, we are excited to announce that the Atlanta Fed’s Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity is partnering with the Markle Foundation and many other organizations to launch the Rework America Alliance, an innovative, nationwide initiative to help workers emerge from this crisis stronger. ...
Working Paper
The Effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansions on Financial Wellbeing
We examine the effect of the Medicaid expansions under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) on consumer, financial outcomes using data from a major credit reporting agency for a large, national sample of adults. We employ the synthetic control method to compare individuals living in states that expanded Medicaid to those that did not. We find that the Medicaid expansions significantly reduced the number of unpaid bills and the amount of debt sent to third-party collection agencies among those residing in zip codes with the highest share of low-income, uninsured ...
Discussion Paper
The Digital Divide and the Pandemic: Working from Home and Broadband and Internet Access
The industrial makeup of a metropolitan area or state is an important factor in how it experiences economic disruptions, and concentrations of certain industries in a region make it more or less resilient and can affect its ability to rebound from a negative economic shock. Similar to effects felt in the industrial Midwest by other economic shifts and shocks over the last several decades, we know these places with heavily “nontraded” sector economies are likely feeling disproportionately negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While industrial composition—meaning the key ...
Newsletter
How Health Insurance Improves Financial Health
Low-income Americans who became eligible to enroll in Medicaid due to the Affordable Care Act saw their medical debt cut in half.
Discussion Paper
Talent Finance: Exploring the Future of Workforce Partnerships
In 2020, our economy competes on talent. The labor market is dynamic, with in-demand skills constantly changing. A dynamic economy can create opportunities for workers, but it also creates risk. Investing in talent development—or talent finance—is imperative for companies and workers to succeed, but with the evolving nature of our global economy, our old systems of talent finance do not always work. Talent finance refers to the development and use of public and private instruments for investing in talent development and in managing related downside employment and income risks.As early as ...
Discussion Paper
The Importance of Addressing Long-Term Unemployment for Economic Recovery
In April 2020, the U.S. unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.8 percent from a low of 3.5 percent because of stay-at-home orders and fears over the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the initial lockdown in April and May 2020, the unemployment rate declined rapidly, reaching 5.9 percent in June 2021. Nonetheless, many workers, a large fraction of whom have been out of work for a long time, face challenges.According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), fewer workers had been laid off or fired in June 2021 than in the previous month, and 850,000 new jobs had been added. However, the number of ...
Discussion Paper
Partnerships between Community Development Financial Institutions and Workforce Development Organizations
Inability to secure capital to improve worker skills or expand training programs can prevent growth in a local economy. This paper presents the role CDFIs can play to fill a need for financing in the workforce development sector. While the transactions presented in this paper are unique, they highlight the importance of partnerships between the two industries. Shared missions and an overlapping client base between CDFIs and workforce development practitioners creates a natural pairing for collaboration. In addition, CDFIs are uniquely able to serve as test beds for innovation because of their ...
Discussion Paper
Emerging Themes from Workforce Development Month 2021
Workforce Development Month, celebrated each September, focuses on what workers need to be successful in an evolving economy. Lawmakers, researchers, and practitioners acknowledge National Workforce Development Month to help uplift challenges within the industry. Many Americans face barriers in securing and maintaining quality employment, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these challenges. In August 2021, the national unemployment rate remained elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. The number of workers who are long-term unemployed (unemployed for 27 weeks or more) has nearly ...