Low Unemployment Has Been Good for the Working Poor. Are There Lessons To Be Learned For Leaner Times?

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With rising inflation, downtowns that are yet to fully reopen and regional bank failures, it may seem that there is not a lot of good economic news to report right now. But according to Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S. Jacobs, the authors of a new book, “Moving the Needle,” there is a major economic success story in the tight labor markets of recent years which helped bring the truly disadvantaged out of poverty. Newman and Jacobs say that low unemployment has not only increased wages, it has also changed employers’ minds about hiring the formerly incarcerated, the value of a minimum wage, and the importance of flexible schedules. We’ll talk about how the policies applied during periods of low unemployment can make a difference when economic times get tough. Guests: Katherine S. Newman, provost and executive vice president, Academic Affairs, University of California; co-author, "Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor" Elisabeth S. Jacobs, senior fellow, Urban Institute Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population; co-author, " Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:34.2	Thank you. From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:49.3	Generally speaking, when unemployment goes up, it's bad.
0:52.3	But what happens when things are good? That is to say,
0:55.5	when unemployment is very, very low. A new book, Moving the Needle, argues that a very specific
1:01.3	set of things begins to happen when unemployment drops to and stays near record lows.
1:07.0	Marginalized people gain a foothold in new jobs, wages rise, companies institute training programs, there's new perks,
1:13.6	and these people entering the labor force might not get that opportunity otherwise.
1:18.6	We'll explore what our current economic conditions are doing for the poor,
1:22.6	and consider whether the benefits of this current climate can be extended,
1:25.6	even as the Fed continues to try to cool off
1:28.2	the economy. That's all coming up next after this news.
	...

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