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American Morning

Stuck in the Snow; November Jobs Report; Entertainer Of The Year; "Social Network" Scores Big

Aired December 03, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this Friday. Thank goodness. December 3rd. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us.

Let's get you caught up on what happened overnight. Buffalo buried at a complete stand still for miles after Upstate New York was slammed with three feet of snow. Hundreds of people were stranded after part of the New York State Thruway shut down. Traffic moving again this morning, but the storm is not over yet.

CHETRY: The November jobs report due out at the bottom of the hour. What kind of job growth, if any, can we expect to see? We're going to have Christine Romans breaking it all down for us.

ROBERTS: And boo him all you want. LeBron James still put up 38, total domination in his first game back in Cleveland in a Miami Heat uniform. We'll have the highlights and the hostility from the crowd.

CHETRY: Up first, have you ever experienced thunder snow?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a good situation in everything.

(THUNDER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Welcome to Buffalo.

The New York State Thruway reopened a couple of hours ago after drivers had to endure cold and hungry hours. They were stranded in the Buffalo area when the freeway shut down. Cars and 18 wheelers, moms and truckers all of them stuck in three feet of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to be home. I mean, they're all home from a snow day, and I have been working for -- I've been up for like over 24 hours. I want to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the official throughway radio, it was saying, oh, traffic is heavy. It's stop and go. And we've been stopped dead for six hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Think he'd had enough? Well, the storm's not finished yet. Jaclyn Asztalos from our affiliate WKBW joins us live from Buffalo this morning.

And we see the thruway is open at least behind you. But what about the storm? Anymore snow?

JACLYN ASZTALOS, WKBW REPORTER: Well, the snow is still coming down just a little bit here. But as you can see, the traffic's moving very quickly here.

And I think people are just happy to be able to get to work today with the thruway and quickly because yesterday, tension was high. People were sitting on car to car. It was just a wall of cars on the thruway and some people in the cars more than 15 hours. ATVs -- firefighters on ATVs and emergency crews had to go out, bring them food and water and some gas, because some people did run out of gas and there were some emergencies. But luckily everybody got out of this ordeal OK.

But because of tension so high, the thruway authorities actually being questioned about their procedures and they're going to meet later on today about these procedures that when lake-effect snow comes to the area, what they'll be doing do for cars on the thruway. So, good news is: the thruway is open and everybody is out of this ordeal safely.

Back to you.

CHETRY: Thank goodness. All right. It's going to be a long winter ahead for Buffalo. I know. I used to be a reporter in Erie. And lake-effect snow, not so much fun.

ROBERTS: You think they'd be used to it there. I don't know how they got blindsided by this.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, she was saying that this -- because of all the rain, there was a sheet of ice and snow as well, so it was leading to a lot of accidents. You can't drive in ice. I mean, no matter what, you know?

ROBERTS: Still, it's nothing new in Buffalo. Come on. Be on top of it.

CHETRY: Well, Reynolds Wolf is on top of it all for us. He's in the extreme weather center today.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, John, it's funny you bring that up. I was speaking with Jack Lowe (ph), who is our (INAUDIBLE) here in the studio and he mentioned, you know, this is Buffalo. Why were they seeing this kind of activity?

ROBERTS: Yes.

WOLF: Why are they having these issues?

Well, the thing is, not the idea of the lake-effect snow, it's the intensity, how quickly and how rapidly it began to stack up. Just the sheer magnitude of just the volume of the snow is the thing that really caused all the issues and it is still coming down.

They're starting to get ahead of it. Certainly some good news. We saw on that live shots some movement along parts of 90, but the problem is we're going to see more of this into both Saturday, into Sunday and possibly into Monday, also.

It's almost like a giant weather machine. We've got the prevailing wind coming out of the west. Lake Erie is relatively warm. So, when you have relatively warm water, it heightens the evaporation as it going to begin to go up and interacts, that water vapor with the cool air aloft and comes down in those sheets of snow and that will continue.

It's going to cause some delays out there, certainly on the roadways. Snow is also going to causes a few delays in spots like Minneapolis. Wind could be an issue in Newark and in Denver and Cleveland. You better believe, it's snow really will kick into the afternoon and through the weekend, also.

Snow would be a problem for parts of the Midwest. So, you're going to have some issues there. Later on today, I would not be surprised if we see some delays pop up at some of the regional airports out towards the west and into the Great Basin, perhaps even into places like Salt Lake City. And we're going to tackle that problem coming up in just a bit.

Let's send it back to you in the studio.

ROBERTS: Reynolds, thanks. See you again soon.

WOLF: You bet.

ROBERTS: Could it be three in a row? Right now, signs point to a positive opening on Wall Street. With Dow futures higher. Stocks closed 107 points higher yesterday. That was the second straight rally.

Investors are waiting on that all-important November jobs report, though.

CHETRY: Yes. And so, is this a good omen? The market rally before the jobs report. The November jobs report due out in just 25 minutes.

Christine Romans joins us with more.

We added private sector jobs last month.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We did.

CHETRY: Can we expect that again?

ROMANS: And we're expecting it again. We're expecting overall maybe jobs growth of about 140,000 jobs. (INAUDIBLE) shows if the trend continues that slowly but surely you are seeing private companies adding jobs. That's what we want to see. So, when this number comes out in about 24 1/2 minutes, we're going to be zeroing in on what private companies were doing.

We have evidence that small businesses are starting to add jobs finally. Main Street adding jobs is a good thing. The government has been the driver of new jobs growth in Census jobs and stimulus type jobs. But what we want to see is the private sector working again.

This won't be enough probably to lower the unemployment rate from 9.6 percent. And we're probably going to see a pretty uncomfortable record today, and that is if, we as we expect to see a 9.6 percent unemployment rate, it's the longest above 9 percent we've ever been in history.

ROBERTS: And there are some analysts who are saying we're going to be above 9 percent for another year at least.

ROMANS: It's going to take years of solid, consistent 200,000 to 300,000 jobs grown every month before you're going to start to eat into those jobs that we lost during the recession. So, one thing that I think if you just recently lost your job and there's jobs growth this year -- you can see that last month, we had 151,000 jobs grown. One thing that we're really going to be watching is if you've just lost your job recently, things are picking up. People are staying out of the job market, or staying unemployed for shorter than we've seen in a long time.

ROBERTS: That's good.

ROMANS: But the people who've been unemployed for a long time, they're still having a terrible time getting in the market.

ROBERTS: There's some prejudice about how long have you been unemployed?

ROMANS: Absolutely, absolutely. The 99ers, the long term unemployed, they're still having a very hard time.

ROBERTS: What about the 27ers?

ROMANS: But the people who've been out of work for just a little bit, they're coming back in more quickly.

CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll be watching. We'll find out whether or not things are looking up in just a few minutes.

ROMANS: Yes.

ROBERTS: Christine is back here in about 25 minutes.

ROMANS: Yes. Great.

ROBERTS: President Obama is going to have a statement on the monthly jobs number later on this morning about 11:15 Eastern. CNN, of course, will carry that live. You can also see it on CNN.com.

CHETRY: So, no deal on extending the Bush tax cuts, at least so far. Republicans and Democrats agree that tax breaks should be extended.

ROBERTS: But they can't agree on everyone or just people who are making less than $250,000 a year.

Joining us now from Washington, our chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley, also host of "STATE OF THE UNION."

So, what are you hearing about the potential compromise in the Senate that might actually get voted on tomorrow?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the biggest clue we have is that they redid the schedule vote or redid the time they thought they're going to vote, which was today. So, generally, when the Senate cancels a vote, they're either very near something to get a big yea or they don't have enough to overcome a filibuster.

So, this could be one or the other. But, nonetheless, it says to you that they are still negotiating behind closed doors, that we are hearing from a variety of places that, in fact, maybe they will have temporary extension of tax cuts for the wealthy.

There may be some other things tacked on. They have a big, long-term unemployment benefits have expired for those who have been unemployed for sometime. That may be part of the package. Again, reports saying that.

So, it looks they're near something. But the Senate, you never -- as you know, you never want to predict when they're going to do something, because what they're trying to do now is forge a coalition that will at least give them just enough.

With the Democrats still in charge, what they want to do and they're sort of cherry-picking here, which Republican can we pick off to get us a -- some sort of bill about an extension? So, it's really a kind of sometimes a line-by-line thing.

CHETRY: All right. We'll have to see where that goes.

Meanwhile, we do know the outcome for Charlie Rangel. He was censured. They voted for censure. He spoke yesterday, again saying that he didn't think that it was fair. He admitted he made some mistakes, but he did not feel it rose to that level.

So, what now? Is this over with?

CROWLEY: Well, it is. I think probably the thing -- first of all, he just got re-elected for his district in New York. So, he's good for another two years. He's still very popular there.

Second of all, this is more, to me, sort of watching it yesterday, watching Nancy Pelosi's face as she read the censure and watching Congressman Rangel as he stood in the well. This, to me, was more about history because what happens is -- here's a congressman that was a war hero, who has served his district quite honorably. This comes along and what that means is that his page in history will talk about censure, and no politician ever likes that.

ROBERTS: Some people are already saying he's got a swagger back after going through this. It's going to take a lot more than that probably to keep Charlie Rangel down.

Now, what about this other story? That in terms of -- the John Edwards investigation is ongoing. A couple of his former aides, Jennifer Palmieri, who was his spokesperson in the 2008 campaign; Jonathan Prince, who was his deputy campaign manager, testifying before a grand jury here to see if there were any illegal payments made to Reille Hunter.

Does this suggest that this investigation is going somewhere?

CROWLEY: Well, since it's been going on since last year and it's a grand jury and they're in secret and people that come out can't talk about it. I just -- bottom line is here I don't know whether they have something. But certainly, they've been investigating for a long time, which tells me there's still more to look at and they believe there's something there that needs to be followed, some thread that they're pulling.

So, you know, again, this is another one of those things where -- you know, John, if we go back to that campaign, they were so few people at least who after this story broke about John Edwards' affair and later his child, there were so many people that campaigned who were stunned.

And so, it's interesting to me. This must be a "follow the money" thing because I don't think a lot of these people knew what John Edwards was up to.

CHETRY: Yes, a lot of them felt very betrayed as well.

CROWLEY: They did.

CHETRY: Candy, what's coming up on "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday?

CROWLEY: We're having Senator Dick Lugar from Indiana on, among others, simply because, as you know, he's gone rogue here on the Republican Party in some ways, sort of he's running against the current, particularly on the START Treaty. And, as you know, he's a foreign policy expert. So, we want to talk to him about North Korea and such.

But something I think John will like is that Jon Weiner, who I'm sure is a familiar name to you, John, who is -- did a lot to uncover the FBI files on John Lennon that were kept by the Nixon administration, we're going to have him on as a guest to talk about the politics of John Lennon. I know you've got a big special coming up. But we're going to take a little part of that and move it on to Sunday.

ROBERTS: Sounds good, Candy. Looking to forward to it. A hot tea with lemon and honey, and matzo ball chicken soup.

CHETRY: I know. I was just going to say you need some chicken soup, you poor thing. It's that time of year, right?

CROWLEY: Sorry.

ROBERTS: Chicken soup with matzo ball. It's like antibiotics. Incredible.

CROWLEY: I have to take just the matzo balls. I'm a vegetarian.

ROBERTS: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Thanks, Candy. We'll see you on Sunday.

CROWLEY: Thanks. OK.

ROBERTS: And be sure to catch Candy Crowley and "STATE OF THE UNION" Sunday morning, 9:00 Eastern, and again noon Eastern, right here on CNN.

CHETRY: Well, he came, he saw and he dominated. King James still reigning over Cleveland, unfortunately, for his old team and his old fans. The Miami Heat routing the Cavs. Fans were hostile but what did LeBron James have to say about it all? We're live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Fifteen-and-a-half minutes after the hour. He came home and brought the heat and so did the fans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At court, 6'8 from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, number 6, LeBron James.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: That's a warm welcome for LeBron James at the -- wait, no. Sorry, wrong. It came out to a chorus of boos, as you can see. Returning to Cleveland for the very first time in a Miami Heat uniform, and boy did they let him have it.

CHETRY: Oh, yes, even the way that the announcer said LeBron James. That's certainly a come down from how he's used to being introduced in Cleveland, but he didn't care. He was able to brush off the boos and bad vibes, and he actually scored 38 points in a total drubbing of the Cavs outscoring his entire starting five members of his old team.

Carol Costello is live for us in Cleveland this morning. You know, I'm not a Miami Heat fan and I'm not a Cavaliers fan, but I was rooting for the cavaliers. I mean, I just want them to have something to be pleased about and this was just depressing, so depressing last night for them.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was depressing. And Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers has the work cut out for him, right? Because LeBron James is the list of his trouble. The fans were abysmal last night. By the third quarter, fans were leaving. That's how -- that's how depressed they were. I want to show you a picture in "The Cleveland Plain Dealer." It's a pretty good picture, because basketball is such an intimate sport because the arenas are set up that way.

You can see how close the fans actually could get to LeBron James. And you see him passing by and yelling and booing right into his face. This guy has a glass of beer, and yes, he did not throw the beer on LeBron James. The fans were pretty well behaved, although, they did chant profanities throughout the night and other things like Scotie Pippen which was actually kind of clever. You can figure out what that means, I'm sure.

Also, "Akron hates you." They chanted that quite a bit, and then, of course, the profanity. So, there were very interesting signs. And you know, everybody was saying he better not do that signature puff of smoke thing, but don't you know he went ahead and did it? And that brought out the thunderous boos, as well.

But again, there were just like minor misdemeanor offenses outside of the arena. There were minor skirmishes up in the stance. The people throwing beer on one another, but other than that, things went pretty smoothly. I did ask LeBron James after the game how he felt when the fans were chanting "Akron hates you." This is how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, BASKETBALL PLAYER, MIAMI HEAT: There's nothing personal. You know, it's a basketball game. And my -- I had to maintain my focus no matter what's said or done throughout that game. There's nothing personal, you know, at all. To me, to the fans, you know, I don't hold any grudges. They came out to support their team, support the Cavaliers in any way possible to try to get anybody, myself or any of our guys unfocused on what the task was.

So, you know, they tried anything. So, it's nothing. I don't have any hurt feelings or hard feelings about this game at all from these fans. I wish them the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Miami Heat fans have some advice for you. If you want LeBron James to play better, simply boo him and boo him loudly -- John and Kiran.

CHETRY: Right. And play all your games at the Q.

ROBERTS: Yes, exactly. Play every game in the Cleveland.

CHETRY: The Scottie Pippen reference as people are going to say (ph), what do you mean, Carol? Trying to say that he's Dwyane Wade's sidekick, right? Like Scottie Pippen with Michael Jordan sidekick.

COSTELLO: Right. Not as good as Michael Jordan. Right. Exactly. See, you got it. The biggest applause, by the way, came for Dan Gilbert, who's the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He sat not too far from LeBron James, and I think he actually left before the game was over. They did not exchange words. The most interesting thing was some of the Cleveland Cavaliers' players greeted LeBron James, you know, in a friendly way and others completely shunned him.

But to -- you know, I was reading through the sports page in "The Cleveland Plain Dealer" and one of the upsetting things was the Cavs were losing so badly yet they were joking around on the bench with LeBron James, and that didn't make many fans happy.

ROBERTS: Yes. So, here he comes back to Cleveland, he gets roundly booed, scores a season high 38, slams the Cavaliers, and then, every bit the gentleman in his press conference. I guess, he kind of got the last laugh last night.

COSTELLO: Well, don't look at that -- don't look at it that way, John. Just look at it optimistically. The fans -- the fans had a chance to vent. It was their cathartic moment, and, maybe, this will turn into friendly rivalry down the line, and when the Miami Heat comes to Cleveland, they'll have a boo fest. They now will become kind of a fun thing instead of kind of an angry thing.

ROBERTS: Think of it this way --

COSTELLO: I think Cleveland had a feeling it is time to move on.

ROBERTS: Think of it this way for you, though, Carol. You still got the Detroit Lions.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Do you want me to throttle him for you? Would you like me to start choking him now or should I wait until 9:01? Poor Carol.

COSTELLO: Do it in a commercial break. Don't wait until 9:01.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: Thanks, Carol.

CHETRY: Entertainer of the year -- poor Carol. The Entertainer of the Year is -- da da da.

ROBERTS: Tease, tease, tease. Right.

CHETRY: We'll tell you later.

ROBERTS: Yes. Coming up.

And also, coming up in just a few minutes, three decades ago the world shocked by the murder of music great, John Lennon. Coming up, his eldest son, Julian Lennon and how he dealt with his father's murder. It's 21 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, she has achieved more before the age of 21 than many people do in a lifetime. Add one more to Taylor Swift's resume. She is "Entertainment Weekly's" Entertainer of the Year, the magazine's youngest ever. In 2010, Swift starred in a hit movie, "Valentine's Day," won four Grammys, and sold more than a million copies of her latest album "Speak Now" in just one week.

CHETRY: I met her when she was just 16 or 17, just getting the start in the country, playing her guitar. A total sweetheart. So, hopefully, the fame doesn't go to her head.

ROBERTS: Yes. Hopefully, she seemed to have handled it pretty well, so far. Let's hope it continues.

CHETRY: Absolutely. Well, congrats to you, Taylor.

Meanwhile, there's an Oscar favorite going in. Now, "The Social Network" has won the first major prize of the award season Best Film from the National Board of Review. It's actually a clean sweep for the so-called Facebook movie. It honors also for David Fincher as best director, Jesse Eisenberg as best actor, and Aaron Sorkin for best adapted screenplay.

ROBERTS: Steve Carrell going from the office to the post office. He set to leave the NBC comedy in May. Now, Carrell has reportedly writing a new show for the network based on his years as a mail carrier in Massachusetts before he hit it big.

CHETRY: I bet there's a lot of stories there.

Well, even Barbie is staying wired these days. The new computer engineered Barbie comes with a pink laptop and an iPhone. That's usually what your computer engineers (ph) look like, right? So, you see what she has. She has her little bluetooth headset. It goes for $13. And in case you're wondering, yes, Barbie does have an app for the iPhone and the iPad.

ROBERTS: It looks more like a web entrepreneur, actually.

CHETRY: Yes. Or Reese Witherspoon in -- what was the movie again? "Legally Blond."

ROBERTS: "Legally Blond." Thank you. Yes. Say it in there and it comes out here. Perfect.

CHETRY: I know. I love it.

Well, the November jobs report will be out in a few moments and hoping, fingers crossed, that companies, private sector jobs will be out there again. Last month, they did add some jobs. So, we'll see what happens this year. Christine Romans is going to join -- this month.

ROBERTS: Sure be nice to get some good news. No question about that.

CHETRY: Yes. Absolutely.

ROBERTS: And also ahead, losing John Lennon. How his son, Julian Lennon, dealt with his father's murder. You'll hear from him coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: All this week we've been previewing a CNN documentary reported by John that's airing this weekend about the death of John Lennon. It will be 30 years on Wednesday since he was murdered by Mark David Chapman.

ROBERTS: Well, this morning, John Lennon's first son, Julian, talks about Chapman and what it was like after learning that his father had died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former Beatle, John Lennon, has been shot in his Manhattan apartment tonight. Police say that Lennon was taken to Roosevelt Hospital where his condition --

JULIAN LENNON, JOHN LENNON'S SON: Hard to imagine it was reality. Still to this day, in so many ways, it still feels like a dream.

ROBERTS: John Lennon's first son, Julian, was in Liverpool when he got the news.

LENNON: I came down stairs. All the curtains were closed. You know, I found out what had happened, and then, of course, you know, when mom arrived we were in bits.

ROBERTS: He immediately flew to New York.

LENNON: Every person on that plane had the newspaper of dad's, you know, picture and John Lennon slain, murdered, and that was a toughie. That was a toughie.

ROBERTS: He went right to the Dakota for a tearful reunion with his 5-year-old brother Shawn.

You had a sense of responsibility, a duty --

LENNON: Well, yes, yes. It reminded me of something.

ROBERTS: What did it remind you?

LENNON: My life.

ROBERTS: Uh-huh.

LENNON: You know, we were of similar age when he sort of -- when he left us. You know? I mean, the first time around hat it happened to me at least, you know, he didn't pass away, but this was, you know, going to be tough on a little boy that had a great deal of love coming from his father.

ROBERTS (voice-over): Love that Julian never received from his father as a child.

JULIAN LENNON: To a degree I was abandoned as a kid, you know, twice, if not three times in many respects.

ROBERTS: It was the height of Beatle mania and John was on the road constantly. Eventually, he divorced Julian's mother Cynthia, moved to New York, and started a new family with Yoko Ono. Julian only saw his father a handful of times before his death.

JULIAN LENNON: He obviously was trying to reach out later in life. No question about it. And he knew that, you know, I still was looking -- longing for that relationship with him.

ROBERTS (on camera): Do you feel cheated that you were denied that opportunity?

JULIAN LENNON: Of course I do. I mean, no question about it. It's beyond sadness that he's not around, obviously. But there's nothing anybody can do about that.

ROBERTS (voice-over): December 8th marks the 30th anniversary of Lennon's murder. His killer, Mark David Chapman was just denied parole for the sixth time.

ROBERTS (on camera): Should he ever be released?

JULIAN LENNON: I can't answer that. You know, there's supposed to be room in our hearts, in all of our hearts for forgiveness. My own thoughts are personal on that and are my own and will remain that way. That's -- that's for me and my own thoughts and my own quiet time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The documentary "Losing Lennon, Countdown to Murder" premiers this weekend, Saturday and Sunday night at 8:00 eastern right here on CNN. Stay tuned. Right after the documentary for John Lennon, "Living in America," exploring Lennon's years in New York City, Saturday night, 10:00 eastern and Sunday night at 10:30 right here on CNN.

Well, that all-important November jobs report just out from the Labor Department moments ago.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We have the numbers here. Not great. Unfortunately the unemployment rate rose slightly up to 9.8 percent. Here to break down the numbers for us, we'll start with Christine Romans. We knew the private sector would add jobs. They didn't add as many as last month.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No. This is not the report that people wanted this week. This is not the report we thought that was going to happen.

We know the jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent after holding steady at 9.6 for three months in a row. That's not good news. It's likely means more people are trying to get into the labor market to get a job.

It's the -- only 39,000 jobs changed. The Bureau of Labor Department calls that little changed. We want to be seeing jobs growth here. Overall 39,000 jobs. Private sector jobs, I told you to watch very carefully for that. Private sector jobs growth, 50,000. So it's something for the administration to point to now, 10 or 11 months now of growth going in the right direction.

But 50,000 jobs, again, everyone wanted to see more than that. There were some revisions. September and October were a little better than we thought. In September, we only lost 24,000 jobs. We thought it was 40-some. And also in October we gained 172,000 jobs. These are a lot of numbers.

But it tells you bottom line, more people unemployed. People are still unemployed for a very, very long time, and the average work week dropped a little bit. We wanted to see it go up because that would mean without adding jobs they were adding hours, and they weren't.

ROBERTS: So this forecast that drove the Dow wild didn't come to pass?

ROMANS: It did not come to pass. You had a private sector survey showing 93,000 private sector jobs. We have 50,000 private sector jobs. Again, it's going in the right direction but this is a slow, slow turn.

CHETRY: It's curious. What typically happens, I mean, you would think with the seasonal work and with retailers really ramping up for the holidays that you might see it different. Is December usually a high growth month, or November and December?

ROMANS: Well, in the recovery, yes. We are having a very slow and cautious recovery.

I'm interested to hear what Jeff Joerres has to say form Manpower about this. You are seeing a war for talent in some areas, and some people newly employed are having a much easier time getting a job. They are finding there's action out there.

We're also hearing there are jobs that are not advertised. Those are a lot of employers are still cautious about advertising for jobs when they find the right person they're hiring them.

ROBERTS: Let's bring in Jeff and find out in Milwaukee, Wisconsin right now, the chairman and CEO of Manpower Incorporated. What are you thinking about the numbers? What's the environment like out there?

JEFFREY JOERRES, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MANPOWER, INC.: First of all, you want to look at the total number and no doubt I think the consensus numbers were for private sector jobs right around that 150 mark. So I think the market will look at this saying not exactly what I was looking for.

You know, we kind of a little different insight looking that the. No doubt what we're seeing is tepid job growth, and that was mentioned before. But what we're not seeing yet is that breakthrough demand to require hiring.

Companies are still doing more with less. The hours typically only collected in the manufacturing area, not collected in the office area. So I think what you are seeing is moving forward. We haven't had that breakthrough yet and hoping to get through to the breakthrough in month of November and we have to wait. December was not a good month for hiring nor is January. So were probably looking out to February before there's good news.

CHETRY: Wow. Stock futures have been on a real roll over the past few days, turning lower on this news right now which, obviously, is expected. Why do you think the discrepancy of what they thought would happen, a rosier outlook, and what happened in the private sector especially?

JOERRES: Well, again, it's so hard. When you look at how much data is collected and how it's collected and look at the revisions as you talked about, you do see some changes.

What I would sense is we do have seasonal hiring patterns. November and December are the ones that you would see some lower seasonal hiring. But normally during, you know, a little bit of a pickup on the recovery, you kind of blow through the seasonal things and pick up on the cycle side.

What we are seeing and hearing, we're cautious, and our company is benefiting. I haven't looked at the numbers but running about 40,000 to 50,000 per month increase. So when's happening is companies are remaining flexible because they're not sure what's happening with taxes, health care, and overall demand for their products and services.

ROMANS: What about the people out there, Jeffrey, who have a job and not satisfied and want to be moving up? There's been some movement, right, in people getting some advantage in the workplace right now because their bosses might not necessarily be hiring from outside, but there might be some opportunities inside to move up and take on new responsibilities.

JOERRES: Well, there's a couple of things. Companies are looking for talent specifically. They want great productivity, great people and selective and that's what's slowing the market down.

When you on an internal market and known for what you're doing, you have some great opportunities. But what I must say is we did a survey under one of our companies, right management, and 60 percent of people said they'll be looking for another job because companies are really putting pressure on what, you know, kind of a more with less, and that's creating real tension within the workplace.

ROBERTS: Jeff, there's a point Christine making about the long- term unemployed, those unemployed more than 27 weeks, and those unemployed for more than eight or 12 weeks, they're having a more difficult time finding a job. Is there a discrimination against the long-term unemployed, and if there is how do they get over the hump?

JOERRES: I think what we are is probably at the one more dangerous points. And I've had a chance to talk about this at the joint economic committee and other things about structural long-term unemployment is something to be concerned with.

We have always thought of five percent, got a little giddy at four percent. I think we will have a hard time for several years below seven percent.

And what's happening is one, companies more selective and skills change so quickly, the antiquation of skills catch up to people. We have to train more. Looking at a resume, someone's out of work for 12 months, your sense of skills up to the level you want is suspect and they move on to the next one, and it's a very dangerous situation.

CHETRY: How much do you think the tax cut debate going on in the Congress affects hiring, especially for small businesses?

JOERRES: Oh, no doubt it affects it. Is it on the margin or is it deep? I think what mostly affects it is a plethora of confusion. So it's not one element, though one element makes a difference. To a small business owner, their ability of visibility and hiring is extremely important. There's a lot of things.

But I would say at the end of the day until we get that consumer really kicking in and some of this kind of confusion out of the way, we're not going to see the kind of employment that's required to keep this moving at the GDP growth we expect as a country like ours.

ROMANS: I would agree. Bottom line is demand. And that's why the Fed wants to juice the economy again with some more stimulus, because you don't have the demand yet and you won't get the jobs created and it's just a vicious cycle. ROBERTS: We are pretty much done for 2010, so maybe looking for better times in 2011. Jeff, thank you for being with us. Christine, you, too.

CHETRY: Still ahead, President Obama will have a statement on the monthly jobs number this morning at 11:15 eastern time. CNN will carry it live.

ROBERTS: Remember the "Golden Girls"? Of course you do. Betty White is still around. Decades after the hit television show went off the air, a real-life version is beginning to unfold across the country. Our Alina Cho will tell you what's going on coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Huge "Golden Girls" fans there. They're not planning to live together, yet. Economic times are tough. People losing their jobs and in many cases struggling to make ends meet, coming up with unique solutions.

ROBERTS: They are. You might be surprised at how some older women are dealing with hard times. They are actually moving in together. In fact, it's become something of a trend across America, a reminder of a more golden time, shall we say?

And here on "AMERICAN MORNING" Alina Cho here now with the story.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you believe that show has been off the air for 25 years now? Now a real-life version is playing out. Good morning. You might call these women modern-day golden girls. More and more women of a certain age deciding, well, to live together as roommates, maybe for the first time since college.

Of course, they are sharing expenses, and that helps. But in some cases, there's an added benefit -- friendship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: You seem like an old married couple to me.

(LAUGHTER)

JEANETTE BROWN, ROOMMATE: You know, we sometimes argue that way, too.

CHO (voice-over): From the looks of it, you'd think Jeanette Brown and Olinda Young have been friends forever. Not so.

Three years ago they were perfect strangers who came together out of necessity. Jeanette needed help paying her mortgage. Olinda, long divorced had lost her job. So they decided to become roommates.

(on camera): What attracted you to do this?

OLINDA YOUNG, ROOMMATE: Well, I didn't want to bother my family, and I wanted to be able to take care of myself. CHO (voice-over): call them modern-day golden girls. Like the TV show.

RUE MCCLANAHAN, ACTRESS: Have I got a man for you.

BEA ARTHUR, ACTRESS: No thanks had one.

CHO: Single women in their 50s, 60s and 70s choosing to live together, to cut down on expenses without giving up standard of living. The recession, high divorce rates and the fact that women live longer than men are all reasons according to home-sharing agencies across the country why older women are moving in together.

So popular a cottage industry has popped up nationwide. Like New Jersey-based HomeSharing, Inc., a roommate-finding service.

RENEE DRELL, EXEC. DIRECTOR, HOMESHARING INC.: I'd say the number one reason is economics. And then, of course, there are the other attendant factors such as companionship, security, having another voice in the home.

CHO (voice-over): Jeanette and Olinda attend church together, walk their dogs together, even read their mail together. Of course, it's not always perfect.

BROWN: When she leaves the dishes in the sink and I get upset sometimes but, you know, we work it up.

YOUNG: And she turns the music on in every room.

BROWN: Oh, yes.

CHO (voice-over): But these two golden girls now say they're as close as sisters.

(on camera): Do you finish each other's sentences?

BROWN: Yes. We learned to do that. We just did that recently. We started finishing each other's sentences.

YOUNG: Yes.

CHO: Do you plan to live together a long time?

YOUNG: Hopefully.

BROWN: I haven't thrown her out yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: But if she leaves the dishes in the sink that's another story.

CHO: That's right. I don't think it's going to happen.

CHETRY: They're so adorable. CHO: Aren't they so cute? I had so much fun spending time with them. I didn't want the interview to end, frankly.

But you know, what's interesting is that home sharing for older women has become so popular and so much of a trend that there is a cottage industry for it now. I mean, there are actually agencies that cater exclusively to older women. There's a Minnesota-based agency called Golden Girl Homes if you can believe it.

Jeanette and Olinda, you know, they have become so close that they're planning to take a trip together in true golden girls fashion. But you know it is an interesting phenomenon because in this economy, you know, people are losing their jobs.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHO: You know, expenses, money is tight and this is certainly a way to make ends meet.

CHETRY: And also to have some companionship. And to have something that's looking out for you. And when people get older --

CHO: Yes, absolutely.

CHETRY: And you know you're just worry if something were to happen or if they were to fall.

CHO: That's absolutely right.

I asked the head of one of those home sharing agencies, you know, what do -- anecdotally what did people say is the best part about this? And she says you know they say that it's just nice to have someone around --

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHO: -- at the house. And -- and you're right. You can't put a price tag on that.

ROBERTS: As long as they're not leaving the dishes in the sink.

CHETRY: Or the Kleenex.

CHO: That's right.

CHETRY: Thanks Alina.

ROBERTS: Thanks Alina.

CHO: Thanks.

CHETRY: Well, another round of snow on the way from the Dakotas to the Carolinas. And down south the bitter chill settling in. Reynolds Wolf with an update for us coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Beautiful morning in Detroit as they're waking up there. It's cloudy and 27 degrees right now. Later on today, though, flurries; a high will just touch 33. A bit above the freezing mark.

CHETRY: In honor of poor Carol Costello whose Cavs lost, go Lions. Go Lions. When all else fails pick a different sport.

Reynolds Wolf right now with us, with a look at the forecast. Hey Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, but in terms of success, going from the Cavs to the Lions, I mean, I -- I don't know. That may not be the best way to go with that one.

CHETRY: That's why we said poor Carol.

WOLF: Enough said. I've the hanky for the tears.

Let's show you what we got right now. Snow is going to be an issue for parts of Syracuse. You know it's going to be a big issue in Buffalo. You see the area shaded in green, that's your lake-effect snow warnings. It's going to remain in effect through a good part of the day and I would not be surprised to see the snow continue through a good part of the weekend.

The snow has been very heavily -- as that wind has been coming off of -- of Lake Erie, coming from the west to the east, the lake -- the heavy snow lake-effect snowfalls has actually been south of Buffalo. What's interesting, north of the city, things begin to ease up a bit.

Lockport, you've had a light dusting but certainly nothing in comparison with the two to three -- in some locations up to four feet of snow in Buffalo.

Very quickly, your delays. Minneapolis you'll have and especially into the afternoon. Newark and Denver, the wind is going to cause some problems. Cleveland, it's all snow biz anywhere from a 30 to a 60-minute delay possible for the day.

Very quickly, snow also expected for parts of the Midwest, back out to the West Coast. Pretty much a nice day from south -- say, San Francisco southward. San Francisco north mainly rain along the coast from the highest elevations, it's all going to be snow.

Your high for the day in Salt Lake City, 42, 31 in Chicago, 43 in New York.

The weekend looks interesting as the snow is going to actually move down in parts of the Appalachians, perhaps even in Charlotte. Late night tomorrow you might see a light dusting of snowflakes in Dallas, 60 degrees. 44 your high in Denver on Saturday. Los Angeles with 68.

Guys have a wonderful weekend. Let's kick it back to you in New York. ROBERTS: Reynolds thanks so much.

CHETRY: You, too.

ROBERTS: Promising health news this morning a widely used arthritis pill may help prevent certain types of skin cancer. We'll have details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. Four minutes until the top of the hour right now.

Some health news for you. The FDA talking about letting more Americans get weight loss surgery. An advisory panel is going to be meeting today on the so-called lap-band procedure, the laparoscopic band. It's a little bit less invasive than some of the other weight loss procedures.

And right now a person who's let's say 5'6" needs to weigh at least 247 pounds to qualify for the operation. That same person could qualify at 216 pounds under new proposed guidelines. If approved, the number of Americans eligible for the life-saving procedure could roughly double.

ROBERTS: Well, could a drug designed to help arthritis patients actually prevent certain types of skin cancer. A study released this week in the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" says the anti- inflammatory drug Celebrex -- that's one of those Cox-2 inhibitors, can prevent the disease in some cases. The study was not completed, though, because the FDA is concerned about the increased risks of heart attack and stroke that are associated with Cox-2 inhibitors. Future studies are need to figure out if the rewards are worth the risk.

They're not talking about melanoma but they're talking about non- melanoma skin cancers. Quite a significant reduction in Basal Cell, squamous (ph) cell for people who took these drugs.

CHETRY: Yes. But again, when we talk about drugs in that class like Celebrex and others, there are pretty significant risks for some people.

ROBERTS: There are. Remember Vioxx was taken off the market back in 2004. But obviously Something that might be worthwhile looking at.

Three minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's going to be 30 years ago on Wednesday that John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman. And our documentary, "LOSING LENNON: COUNTDOWN TO MURDER" premiers this weekend, Saturday and Sunday nights, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. And then we've got a half-hour special at 10:00 on Saturday, 10:30 on Sunday tracing his life simply in New York, a city that he grew to love.

CHETRY: Well, you talked to so many people who never before shared their first-hand experiences. It's a must-watch documentary; we'll all be watching.

ROBERTS: It's a great oral history of the year leading up to his death.

That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us. Have yourself a wonderful weekend. And we'll see you back here again bright and early on Monday.

CHETRY: Sure will. Meanwhile, the news continues. Don Lemon is in the CNN Center right now - hi, Don.