Webinar: California’s public sector and economic recovery: Lessons from the Great Recession for the COVID-19 response

The UC Berkeley Labor Center hosted a webinar on Thursday, June 25 to discuss our June 22 publication Data Brief: Public Sector Impacts of the Great Recession and COVID-19 and a forthcoming blog post: California’s public sector: lessons from the Great Recession for the COVID-19 response.

We discussed the impact of the Great Recession on public sector employment, the importance of the public sector to economic recovery, and the impacts of COVID-19 on public sector workers. As the state and local governments face significant revenue losses and COVID-19 expenditures, we highlight some important lessons for policymakers about the negative impacts of austerity on long-term economic recovery.

Panelists:

Ken Jacobs, Chair, UC Berkeley Labor Center
Sara Hinkley, Specialist, UC Berkeley Labor Center
Justin McBride, Graduate Student Researcher, UC Berkeley Labor Center & UCLA