Any assignment of responsibility must recognize that doing so is complicated. A disaster of the magnitude of the spread of the COVID-19 virus has no single origin. But at the same time, this complexity should not deter us from trying to understand what happened. While...
Topic
In the News
People die if we don’t have a clear, unified message about the virus
In a crisis, consistent, responsible, and factual information needs to be disseminated by all sources regardless of political affiliation. The deep divide between conservatives and liberals has sadly manifested in creating a divided American society. This divide is...
Cafeteria workers need support during the COVID-19 pandemic
The halls of K-12 schools across the country are eerily quiet, as teachers and students stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Yet cafeteria workers are reporting to work, figuring out innovative ways to serve children free, nutritious school meals in...
Early coronavirus job losses hitting minorities, women, teens particularly hard
The pandemic has so far resulted in 701,000 lost jobs according to the March jobs report. And that doesn't even include the nearly 10 million people who filed for jobless benefits in the last two weeks. While the unemployment rate increased to 4.4% from 3.5% in the...
Pay no attention to Friday’s jobs numbers
William Rodgers, professor of public policy and chief economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, said he expected the unemployment rate to soon surpass the Great Recession high of 10%. “What is so chilling is that that took...
Coronavirus batters US economy as 6.65m file for unemployment last week
The US now faces the sharpest rise in unemployment in its history, a surge that is already highlighting income inequality across the nation and comes as the global economy goes into a nosedive that is likely to exacerbate the situation in the months ahead....
New Jersey extends fiscal year over coronavirus concerns
New Jersey on Wednesday became the first U.S. state to extend its fiscal year as it deals with the health and economic fallout from the spreading coronavirus, pushing back the original end date by three months. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy and legislative leaders...
Heldrich Center services during the COVID-19 economic and workforce crisis
The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development has extensive experience from our work during and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Great Recession, and Superstorm Sandy. We have a deep understanding of the programs and strategies that can help people,...
Coronavirus could lead to the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression
Rutgers economist William Rodgers III (a former chief economist at the Department of Labor) and the Century Foundation’s Andrew Stettner built a model using these kinds of unemployment claims numbers to predict the unemployment rate. Plugging in the most recent claims...
Coronavirus NJ: Unemployment website frustrates; should you look for a new job now?
It isn't clear how long it will take for unemployed workers to begin to receive financial relief, said Carl Van Horn, founding director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. "These are jobs (available) right away," he...