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American Morning

January Jobs Report

Aired February 06, 2004 - 08:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Some big jobs numbers just out a few moments ago. Andy Serwer is checking in on that to see how they look and stack up against a month go.
Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

Kind of a mixed picture just coming across the tape this morning. We were expecting 150,000 jobs added in January. We got 112,000. So, not quite as good as anticipated.

However, there is good news. The month of December revised up from 1,000 jobs to plus-16,000 jobs. So a little help there.

Also, the unemployment rate drops from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent. That is the lowest unemployment rate since October of 2001. We've got five straight months now of jobs added to the economy.

However, again, I'm going back and forth a little bit here. Wall Street seems to be not so pleased with this report. Futures are dropping right now. Again, I think the big picture here is we were expecting 150,000 jobs added. We only got 112,000 jobs. So, it depends on -- this is kind of a half-full, half-empty thing.

HEMMER: I would say that overall it appears to be more positive than somebody suggested about a month ago.

SERWER: I would say that's right. I mean, again, we're adding jobs. The picture is improving, not quite as much as we anticipated. But things seem to be getting a little bit better on the job front.

HEMMER: And those revised numbers are quite interesting, too.

SERWER: Yes, it always is.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Opening bell an hour away.

SERWER: That's right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired February 6, 2004 - 08:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Some big jobs numbers just out a few moments ago. Andy Serwer is checking in on that to see how they look and stack up against a month go.
Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.

Kind of a mixed picture just coming across the tape this morning. We were expecting 150,000 jobs added in January. We got 112,000. So, not quite as good as anticipated.

However, there is good news. The month of December revised up from 1,000 jobs to plus-16,000 jobs. So a little help there.

Also, the unemployment rate drops from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent. That is the lowest unemployment rate since October of 2001. We've got five straight months now of jobs added to the economy.

However, again, I'm going back and forth a little bit here. Wall Street seems to be not so pleased with this report. Futures are dropping right now. Again, I think the big picture here is we were expecting 150,000 jobs added. We only got 112,000 jobs. So, it depends on -- this is kind of a half-full, half-empty thing.

HEMMER: I would say that overall it appears to be more positive than somebody suggested about a month ago.

SERWER: I would say that's right. I mean, again, we're adding jobs. The picture is improving, not quite as much as we anticipated. But things seem to be getting a little bit better on the job front.

HEMMER: And those revised numbers are quite interesting, too.

SERWER: Yes, it always is.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Opening bell an hour away.

SERWER: That's right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.