A new study in partnership with the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index and Cornell Law School Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Daniel Alpert shows that a substantial portion of the reported job growth in the official data (May/June/July 2020) reflected workers put back on payroll due to the U.S. Government’s Paycheck Protection Program, who are now being laid off or at high risk of being laid off a second time.
The RIWI dataset shows the re-layoff problem is worse in non-COVID surge states. This suggests the re-layoffs reflect overall economic conditions rather than the resurgence of COVID and implies a much deeper recession than the mainstream jobs data indicate.
News Coverage Includes:
NPR
“Roller Coaster Economy (Scream Inside Only) “ by Cardiff Garcia & Paddy Hirsh
The New York Times
“Coming Next: The Greater Recession” by Paul Krugman
Bloomberg Quint
“U.S. Job Losses to Mount With Small Firms Running on Fumes” by Katia Dmitrieva & Olga Kharif
The Wall Street Journal
“Labor Pains” by Jeffrey Sparshott
Forbes
“A Second Wave Of Layoffs Is Coming As Lockdowns Persist” by Kenneth Rapoza
National Review
“The Capital Note: COVID’s Casualties” by Daniel Tenreiro & Andrew Stuttaford
CNN
“US economy added 1.8 million jobs in July but still down nearly 13 million jobs during the pandemic” by Anneken Tappe
Business Insider
“Nearly one-third of people that have gone back to work after being laid off during the coronavirus pandemic have lost their jobs again, study finds” by Carmen Reinicke
Fox Business
“Second wave of layoffs underway amid coronavirus pandemic” by Paul Best
The Hill
“Survey finds nearly one-third of rehired workers laid off again” by Niv Elis
The Fiscal Times
“Second Wave of Layoffs Underway: Report” by Michael Rainey
Axios
“July’s jobs report could be an inflection point for the coronavirus recovery” by Dion Rabouin
Latin Times
“US Coronavirus Update: Second Wave of Lay Offs Hit Works Who Were Back On Payrolls” by Guneet Bhatia
Manufacturing Business Review
“Second Wave of Coronavirus Layoffs Is Here” by Eric Sorensen & Anna Wells
Cheddar
“Unemployed Again: 2nd Wave of Coronavirus-Driven Layoffs Underway, Say Economists” by Alexander Vuocolo
CNBC
“Nearly one-third of rehired workers laid off again, survey says” by Jesse Pound
