Jesse Rothstein

Policy research folks take note - CPL's research is very influential in California state policy and this high-impact role will help expand that influence. Consider applying and share with your networks!

Come join us at the @capolicylab.bsky.social as our new policy director in Sacramento!

Opinion | They Don’t Want to Live in Lincoln’s America

Read this, by @jamellebouie.net. These are the stakes.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/o...

New paper alert!

The @capolicylab.bsky.social and @thepeoplelab.bsky.social partnered with the CA Dept of Social Services and @codeforamerica.org to help low-income Californians find out about and claim tax credits and pandemic stimulus payments, and to learn what works in outreach.

We Are All DC: A National March — Free DC DC communities are joyful, powerful — and we're under attack. Armed National Guard soldiers are carrying guns through our neighborhoods. ICE and FBI agents are profiling, harassing, and violently arr...

If you live in the Bay Area, but stand in allegiance with DC’s protest against the national guard policing their city, and all the other violations of law and decency, join us, Saturday, 9/6
Where: Oakland city hall, 12th street BART
When: Saturday at 11. #freeDC #indivisible #nokings #50501protest

Note that the first coauthor quoted is, in fact, an economist.

This action by Lisa Cook is courageous, principled, and deserves broad support.

Academic Coordinator I – Executive Director – Executive Leadership Academy - Center for Studies in Higher Education University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

We are hiring an Executive Director for our Executive Leadership Academy (ELA)! Lead the next chapter of a program that's shaped 623 leaders.

Find out more and apply by Sept 22.

🔗 aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05083

#HigherEdJobs

Society of Labor Economists (SoLE) Annual Conference will be May 1-2, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. Submission portal is now open! Deadline for submissions is October 31--don't forget to submit! It will be a great conference! (organized by me and @jrothst.bsky.social)

mailchi.mp/sole-jole/so...

Pesto?

I would like to associate myself with this letter.

Key sentence: "It is unconscionable for Israel to treat civilians as liabilities to be contained rather than as human beings entitled to livable conditions."

The economics is secondary - but if it gives an excuse to make that point, good.

Just to say this plainly: what you're looking at here is a federal police force accountable only to the president rolling up to intimidate the governor of California as he announces his plan to counter a federal legislative coup out of Texas which will ensure their permanent presence in our streets

My campus email should be working now. I don't plan to check the myyahoo account, which I assume will be inundated by spam now.

I've been hearing that emails to my berkeley.edu address from off campus are bouncing today. It seems to be some configuration issue.

For the time being, if you write to me please copy jesserothstein@myyahoo.com.

I tried to explain university finances, indirect costs, and the extortionary demands that the Trump admistration is making of many universities.

Looking for a 2 page explanation of CES Benchmark revisions? I wrote one at www.congress.gov/crs-product/...

Dr. Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased.

#econsky

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system. The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information. This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

Column on the Responsibility of Israelis to Speak Up Against Mass Starvation in Gaza I generally restrict my comments here to economic issues, but some things are hard to ignore.

This piece is very moving, and reflects how I am feeling about the Israel/Gaza calamity.

Silence in the Face of Gaza's Starvation is Absolute Betrayal of Holocaust Victims
By Orit Kamir
Originally published in Haaretz

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thanks to @deanbaker13.bsky.social for posting it.

I just donated to Sameer Project and World Central Kitchen. Please join me. Links in the below post.

This has changed a lot in the last couple decades - start and end dates are both much earlier. My untested hypothesis is that it is an effort to get more of the school year before the spring standardized testing dates.

to Jews, on the Gaza famine an open letter: we have been commanded

I just sent this out.

The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.

It is a choice not to heed them.

Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.

Opinion | Columbia’s Administrators Are Fooling Themselves

A timely and trenchant piece by Suresh Naidu. When future generations sift through the wreckage of our era, they’ll find it strewn with the institutional and personal failures of leaders both great and small.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

Aerial view of college campus, with river in background

Friday is the application deadline for our 2025 Dissertation Award, given to the best policy-focused Ph.D. dissertation on employment-related issues. First prize is $2,500 and up to two honorable mention awards of $1,000 may also be given.
Details at www.upjohn.org/dissertation...

Finished a Ph.D. dissertation related to employment during July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2025?

Does it have policy relevance?

Do you like winning money? Awards?

If yeses, consider applying. Get more info and check out the list of past winners.
#EconSky #Sociology #policysky #polisky #FundSocSci

I’m a quant and a much better cook than baker.

It is based on a fairly sophisticated statistical model. But it doesn't always do a great job of capturing calendar quirks like this - one often sees statistical mirages around holidays, especially ones that move in the calendar.

I have a hypothesis: June 1 was a Sunday this year, so the reference week was earlier in the month than usual. My guess is that some districts/colleges that are usually out for the summer by the reference wk but were still in session this year, and that accounts for the rise in SA education jobs.

Next up: the World Labor Conference in Toronto! The SOLE Mentoring Program (🙏 @jrothst.bsky.social et al) started off yesterday with a great session on replication with @larsvil.bsky.social - and on Saturday I'll be presenting our work on Human Wealth Inequality (w/ @danielwaldenstrom.bsky.social)!

All of these pictures are filling my heart. I believe we can win.