Jessica
Vela

Research Associate, Inclusive Economy

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Jessica Vela

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Jessica Vela is a research associate for Inclusive Economy at American Progress. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, where her studies focused on the intersection of international politics and economics. She is an Ohio native who enjoys listening to podcasts and watching football.

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Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity Article
The U.S. Capitol

Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity

As Congress renegotiates the budget levels for fiscal year 2025, it should match every additional dollar of defense investment with an equal amount of nondefense spending.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio? Report
Top of the Capitol building

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio?

Because most of the Bush-era tax cuts were permanently extended, the United States is projected to have the debt ratio rise indefinitely. Closing this fiscal gap would require decreasing primary deficits by 2.1 percentage points of GDP, on average.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

7 Reasons the U.S. Economy Is Among the Strongest in the G7 Article

7 Reasons the U.S. Economy Is Among the Strongest in the G7

Cooling inflation, continued economic growth, and a strong labor market exemplify the sustained resilience of the U.S. economy, particularly compared with other advanced economies.

Rose Khattar, Jessica Vela

Public and Private Investments Are Poised To Transform Michigan Report
A worker works on the bed of one of Ford’s battery-powered F-150 Lightning trucks.

Public and Private Investments Are Poised To Transform Michigan

The historic home of the automotive industry, Michigan, stands to benefit from major infrastructure improvements and new plants for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, especially if it incorporates public input and builds worker power to grow the middle class.

Opinion: Hispanic and Latino workers deserve equal economic opportunity, not a return to the pre-pandemic status quo In the News

Opinion: Hispanic and Latino workers deserve equal economic opportunity, not a return to the pre-pandemic status quo

Rose Khattar and Jessica Vela discuss how equitable implementation of the Biden administration's major economic accomplishments, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, can help better support Hispanic and Latino workers.

MarketWatch

Rose Khattar, Jessica Vela

Latino Workers Continue To Experience a Shortage of Good Jobs Article
A California street vendor serves customers in front of a colorful mural in Los Angeles.

Latino Workers Continue To Experience a Shortage of Good Jobs

Although Hispanic and Latino workers have high employment rates in the United States, labor market experiences differ substantially within this community, with Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran Americans experiencing significant and intersecting gender and ethnic wage gaps.

Rose Khattar, Jessica Vela, Lorena Roque