News Release
CEI supports SCORE Act protecting college athletes’ right to profit
The Competitive Enterprise Institute endorses the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), which would…
Blog
Court rejects New York bid to take over federal labor enforcement
An effort by the New York legislature to usurp the role of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement…
Blog
New York, California make a play for federal labor law enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, currently lacks a quorum to act. Ordinarily, that type of…
News Release
US economy adds 119,000 jobs in September amid tariff turmoil
American employers added 119,000 jobs in September, the government reported today in the first jobs report since the weeks long federal government shutdown. CEI…
Blog
Impasse over NLRB nominee may be just what unions want
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee yesterday approved one of President Trump’s nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the…
Blog
Next BLS head needs be an innovator, not a loyalist
President Trump nominated E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) because he wanted someone to modernize and update the agency’s…
Blog
The White House’s new visa fee is another tariff
President Trump’s announcement that H1-B visas will now require a payment of $100,000 is best understood as an extension of…
Blog
Progressive states plan end run around federal labor law
The five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, is currently down to just one member and therefore…
News Release
New downward revision for jobs numbers not surprising: CEI analysis
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that there were 911,000 fewer jobs between March 2024 and March 2025 than previously reported. While…
News Release
August adds 22,000 jobs, June and July numbers revised downward: CEI analysis
The jobs report for August shows a meager gain of 22,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate remaining…
DC Journal
Point: AI Won’t Take Our Jobs Away
For an alternate viewpoint, see “Counterpoint: Trump’s Extreme Anti-Labor Policies Could Determine the Effect of AI on Labor.” Read enough headlines about artificial…
News Release
Trump’s pick for Bureau of Labor Statistics should update data collection methods, not play politics
CEI labor and economy experts say President Trump’s nominee to head the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics should improve data collection for jobs…
Blog
BLS data is faulty, not rigged
The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has struggled in recent years to produce an accurate measure of the national employment situation. President…
News Release
July adds 73,000 jobs to the economy, major downward revisions for May and June’s numbers: CEI analysis
The economy added a modest 73,000 jobs in July, with major downward revisions for May and June triggering alarms about the state of…
Blog
How to end the ‘free rider’ problem with union representation
Congressman Rick Allen (R-GA) has re-introduced the Employee Rights Act, legislation that would codify several individual…
Blog
California’s fast-food minimum wage is super-sizing job losses
Minimum wage increases would be a fine idea if they worked the way that their fans assumed that they did: increasing the take-home pay…
National Review
Josh Hawley, friend of a friend of the working man
His mistake is thinking that the way to win over working-class voters is by supporting policies favored by union leaders. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is…
News Release
June added 147,000 jobs to economy, increase in discouraged workers: CEI analysis
The jobs report for June showed an increase of 147,000 jobs in the economy, exceeding economists’ expectations. An increase in discouraged workers and…
Blog
Supreme Court likely to decide fate of federal unions
A matter likely to end up before the Supreme Court soon is the right of federal government employees to form unions. Whether they retain…
Blog
‘With you or without you’ – The growing rift between unions and Democrats
A rift is growing between the Democratic Party and the labor movement. It was caused in large part by the party’s inability to move…
News Release
Economy adds 139,000 jobs in May, labor market growth slows: CEI analysis
May added 139,000 jobs to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying unchanged at 4.2 percent. Trump’s policies, namely his mission to shrink…
Blog
The flaw in Justice Kagan’s defense of the NLRB
Justice Elana Kagan authored a lengthy dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday granting the Trump administration’s request to keep the Gwynne…
Blog
Initiative 82 will hopefully get 86’d
The city of Washington, DC has belatedly realized that passing a law whose purpose is to make a product or service more expensive will…
The Daily Signal
How Many Biden Appointees ‘Burrowed in’ to the Permanent Bureaucracy?
The Daily Signal cited CEI’s expert on political career placements Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also highlighted the…
News Release
April adds 177,000 jobs to economy, tariff policies yet to majorly shakeup labor market: CEI analysis
The job numbers for April show 177,000 jobs were added to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying steady at 4.2 percent. While job…
Blog
CEI suggests DOT put the brakes on train two-person crew rule
The Transportation Department recently asked the public for comments on how to reduce the regulatory burden. One thought that the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Comment
Competitive Enterprise Institute Letter in Support of DOT Request to Reduce Regulatory Burden
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) request for…
Blog
Trump’s tariffs: Look for the union label
One of the biggest boosters of President Trump’s tariffs has been the United Auto Workers (UAW). The venerable union wants to see domestic factories…
Letters
CEI joins ATR to Protect Taxpayers Wallets
Dear Members of Congress, Taxpayer dollars should benefit Americans, not subsidize organized labor. Under current law, federal employees can continue to earn their…
Blog
Why government reform may hinge on ending federal unions
President Trump’s executive order ending collective bargaining for a wide swath of federal cabinet agencies and other government entities is a laudable…
News Release
March adds 228,000 jobs ahead of a rocky economic road: CEI analysis
The job numbers report for March show 228,000 jobs were added to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying steady at 4.2 percent.
Blog
Trump’s push to remake the NLRB
Things are a bit topsy-turvy currently at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that oversees labor-management disputes…
Blog
Five ideas for Secretary Chavez-DeRemer
President Trump’s newly-confirmed labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has been viewed with suspicion by many on the free-market right. She can rectify…
News Release
Trump EO reflects big drawbacks of government unions: CEI analysis
President Trump signed an executive order on March 27 to end collective bargaining with public sector unions in certain agencies with national security missions.
Blog
Hawley’s bill speeds up union elections by removing guardrails
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) thinks workers are having too hard of a time forming unions. His solution to that is to fast-track the…
Letters
CEI joins Institute for the American Worker in coalition letter about Senator Josh Hawley’s proposal framework for the PRO Act.
Dear Members of the United States Senate, We write to express our deep concern about Senator Josh Hawley’s proposed labor framework. The framework…
Blog
Chavez-DeRemer exemplifies Trump’s complicated relationship with unions
The Senate confirmed former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a 67-32 vote Monday as President Trump’s new labor secretary. CEI and…
News Release
TSA to end collective bargaining due for its workers, citing abuse of union “official time”: CEI comment
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced it is ending collective bargaining for the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Transportation Security Officers, explaining…
News Release
Economy adds fewer jobs than expected in February 2025, with trade tariff uncertainty looming large
Experts expected the U.S. economy to add 160,000 jobs in the month of February, but it fell a bit short at 151,000. As President…
Blog
You want hiring freezes with that? The effects of California’s minimum wage increase
California officially raised its minimum wage to $20 an hour last April in an attempt to help the state’s working poor. What those…
Blog
White House requires federal agencies to disclose time spent working for unions instead of taxpayers
The Trump administration has restored reporting and transparency requirements for so-called “official time,” the practice where government workers are allowed to act exclusively on…
Blog
Trump labor department pick signals pro-market stance on joint employer, independent contract rules
Keith Sonderling, Trump’s pick to deputy secretary of labor, the department’s second-ranking position, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee…
The Daily Signal
The Sneaky Way Government Unions Rake in Taxpayer Money, and How Congress Can Fight It in Reconciliation
The Daily Signal quoted CEI’s expert on budget reconciliation To drive the point home, Stern noted, “Your tax dollars quite literally go to…
Blog
Trump labor secretary pick backs right to work, disavows past support for union-tilted PRO Act
President Trump’s pick to be labor secretary, former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, disavowed her past support for the union-tilted …
Blog
Trump says labor law cannot prevent him from cleaning house at labor umpire agency
President’s Trump’s letter firing National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox and the NLRB’s general Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, makes the bold claim…
Blog
No, Virginia, there was no Amazon worker strike
The labor protests launched by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Amazon over the Christmas holiday were nothing more than a hollow …
News Release
January adds 143,000 jobs to the economy, labor market trends cooler: CEI analysis
Blog
Hawley offers gift to union leaders, not workers
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) reportedly has proposed a “pro-worker framework for the 119th Congress” that amounts to a watered down wishlist of items wanted by unions…
Blog
Trump follows Biden precedent in sacking NLRB general counsel
President Trump’s decision to fire National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox and general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is controversial and will likely be…
Blog
Trump’s new Schedule F executive order is smarter, but could still backfire
President Trump’s re-instatement of his “Schedule F” executive order, making it easier to fire career federal…