Unemployment numbers are back to
pre-pandemic levels.
....With me here is geoff
Bennett
>> The country's labor market is
bouncing back, adding another
431-thousand jobs in March and
bringing the unemployment rate
to a new pandemic-era low of 3.6
percent, according to the latest
jobs report from the labor
department.
Even though the job gains were
lower than what many economists
had expected, they still made
for a strong first quarter for
the u-s labor market with an
average monthly gain of more
than half a million jobs.
For more, we turn to deputy
director of the white house
national economic council,
bharat ramamurti.
This jobs report is one that any
white house would welcome.
The economy is more than 1.6
million jobs short of February
2020 before the pandemic hit.
When this when you look at this
report, what do you see as the
bright spots and where do you
see areas of improvement?
>> Well, there's a lot of news,
good news coming out of the jobs
report today as you said another
very strong month for job gains
over all over 400,000 new jobs
the unemployment rate dropping
to 3.6% which by historical
standards is one of the lowest
on record. Other good news under
the hood though, for example,
labor force participation, which
is the percentage of workers who
are looking for work or fight or
who or who have a job has gone
up significantly among prime age
folks. That's folks between the
ages of 25 and 54, which means
people are being attracted back
into the labor market. The labor
force participation for women
went up significantly as well.
The black and hispanic
unemployment rates continue to
fall. So a lot of good news in
today's report both at the
headline level and under the
hood.
>> That said though the white
house is grappling with this
disconnect you have this
undoubtedly positive jobs
report. And but there is this
this perception about the way
many Americans really you know,
experience the strength of the
economy, given everyday concerns
about the cost of gas, the cost
of groceries, how was the
white house trying to close that
gap between the jobs report on
paper and the way that it's
being felt across the country?
>> Well, look, the president has
been clear that he grew up in a
family where when the cost of
gas went up when the cost of the
grocery bill went up, he felt it
so he understands that families
are feeling that pinch. And for
months now he has been laser
focused on doing what he can to
bring those down. Now look at a
starting level. We should note
that inflation is a global
phenomenon. Countries across the
world are dealing with record
high levels of inflation. And on
top of that, now we have the
inflationary impact of Putin's
war in Ukraine. But just this
week, we've seen a lot of
progress. The senate, for
example, passed a bill just this
week, that would reduce the
costs of ocean shipping to all
those goods that come from
abroad to the United States. The
costs of those will go down as
shipping costs go down. We saw
the senate passed a bill that
would manufacture more
semiconductors, more chips here
in the United States, which
would help reduce the cost of
cars and other electronic items.
And we've seen progress on
agriculture, to bring more
competition to those industries
to help bring down the cost of
meat and other products at the
grocery store. So we're chipping
away at this problems. Sure, as
shortly and steadily and it's
the president's number one focus
>> When asked you about wage
growth because looking at this
latest jobs report, it looks
like the wage growth has been
experienced for the most part
among white collar workers,
people who have office jobs,
people who for the most part,
were able to save some money
during the pandemic because they
didn't have to commute as far or
as much, but it's people at the
lower end of the economic
spectrum who are still
struggling president Biden, as
you well know he laid out a host
a whole domestic agenda aimed at
helping he says, working class
Americans, but that agenda has
stalled on capitol hill.
So what's the backup plan?
What's the plan B that the
administration is going to
pursue to help working class
Americans?
>> Well, first, the data
suggests that folks at the lower
end of the income spectrum I've
actually seen by far the largest
wage gains so far, folks who
work in leisure and hospitality,
manufacturing, working at
warehouses and so on. They've
seen the largest wage gains
since the pandemic began and
since this president took
office, and we're glad to see
that those are folks who have
are long overdue for a race.
Second of all, the president's
economic plan has focused on
delivering relief to those at
the middle of the income
spectrum in the lower end of the
income spectrum. The checks that
he provided, the tax cuts he
provided for families with young
children all of that was
targeted at folks with middle
income and low income. So if you
look at the the net effect of
all of that, folks in the
middle, middle class families
United States have more income
than they did going into the
pandemic and we're glad to see
that.
That said the president's push
is for congress to act on a
number of areas where costs are
squeezing families, prescription
drugs, United States is one of
the few countries where we don't
negotiate the cost of
prescription drugs and that's
raising costs for families
across the income spectrum.
Childcare is a huge cost for
many families, the cost of
college, the cost of housing,
those are all issues that the
president is trying to tackle,
and he's urging congress to act.
>> In the minute we have left, I
want to ask you about what has
many folks on Wall Street
concerned. Some analysts say
that there are flashing signs of
a recession they're pointing to
the yield curve inversions. We
don't have to go into that. But
from where you sit, do you share
those concerns of a potential
recession on the horizon?
>> Look, the data shows that the
economy right now is
extraordinarily strong 3.6%
unemployment or coming off the
year with the highest economic
growth that we've had in 40
years and the science for the
first quarter of this of this
year are also very, very strong.
Of course, we are looking at
every data point very, very
carefully, and making sure that
there are no warning signs that
we're getting out ahead. That
any problems and of course, the
issues the the war in Ukraine is
creating additional headwinds
for the economy across the globe
and we're carefully monitoring
that. But the bottom line is
that the economy is in a very,
very strong position. And it's a
credit to the president's bottom
up middle out economic recovery
>> Raj Rama Murthy is deputy
director of the white house
national economic council. We
appreciate your time this
evening. Thank you.
>> Thank U for that report geoff
and U are about to launch pbs
news weekend
>> It's a great team.
I am excited to be part of this
team to retool this broadcast.
It will be a mix of hard news,
features and we will hear from
Cheryl Lee Ralph, then Daryl
hall
>> Very cool, we are so excited
that the news continues on the