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At This Hour

New Jobs Report: Big Miss; Copilot Accelerated Plane's Descent Deliberately; Man Rescued from Sea After 66 Days; Interview with Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 03, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:09] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New job numbers are out and already being called a big miss. What happened and what does it mean for you?

Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz pushed the plane's descent, speeding up the plane's crash into the French Alps. Initial tests from the second black box confirm he acted deliberately.

And a sailor missing for more than two months reunited with his family after being stranded at sea. The story behind his survival and rescue.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. John Berman is off today. Happy Friday. It was going so well and now not so much. I'm talking about that important indicator of the economy, the monthly jobs numbers. The disappointing news came out a short time ago, the Labor Department reporting only 126,000 jobs added last month in the United States. That's the worst performance in more than a year and far below expectations that had been set by those oh so smart minds.

Also wage growth is stagnant. Americans aren't making much more now than they were a year ago. The unemployment rate holding at 5.5 percent.

But let's get the story behind the numbers, what it really does mean. Let's bring in Cristina Alesci for much more on this. One jobs report does not a trend make, everyone always says to me.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

BOLDUAN: But what do you make of this?

ALESCI: March is always a little bit crazy. But, as you mentioned, this is a huge miss. Economists were expecting 244,000 jobs --

BOLDUAN: Wow.

ALESCI: -- just to put it into context. So that's a big deal.

Also, in this report, we learned that the last two reports were revised downward. So that is also 00

BOLDUAN: They had added big numbers in terms of jobs. ALESCI: Exactly. You're talking about 30,000 less -- fewer jobs in those prior two months than previously reported. And we've broken the streak. This is a kind of seminal moment here for the jobs report. Remember, the last 12 months we've added over 200,000 jobs pretty consistently and now this job report breaks that streak.

So not too good. Unemployment rate, as you said, holds steady but that's probably because we're not adding people into the workforce. The labor participation rate, the number of people actually part of the labor force that aren't discouraged from looking for a job, is at 63 percent. That is not very high.

BOLDUAN: People are still quitting looking.

ALESCI: Exactly. And then in terms of what it means for you, this means the Federal Reserve may give some pause in raising the rates, the interest rates that cue everything, that your mortgage is cued off of and things like that. So that's what it means for you.

Also, we've had employers, big employers, come out over the last several weeks and say we're giving our workers a raise, right? But remember, these are the lower paying jobs. These are the entry level jobs. So when you talk about Wal-Mart and McDonald's giving pay raises, you're talking about them giving them to the lowest paid workers. We want to see the middle come up a bit, right, because these are people that have had jobs for a long time and are not getting pay raises. In fact, we just put out a story about workers having to quit their jobs in order to get a pay raise, because that's the only way that you can do it in this sort of economy at 2 percent wage growth. Again, this is not something the Fed wants to see. The Fed considers a healthy recovery 3 or 4 percent in terms of wage raises.

The White House is actually a very interesting player in all this, because every time we get a new jobs number, we see a reaction from the White House.

BOLDUAN: Of course.

ALESCI: And today they're looking and saying, OK, don't look at this one jobs report, look at the last 61 months, right? We've had -- the private sector has added 12.1 million jobs over these last 61 months and they say that is the longest streak on record. So they're always trying to spin the numbers. And as you know, you can spin the numbers any which way you want.

BOLDUAN: Any which way you want, and both sides do every month, as I get the reaction from the White House as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill. But it's an important political discussion and an important discussion for everyone who is looking at their 401(k), who's looking at their wage right now.

ALESCI: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: Important for everyone. Cristina, thank you for laying it out for us. As Cristina was talking about the political ramifications, we're going to be talking more about these numbers. Coming up, we're going to speak directly to the Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. She's going to be joining us to discuss this much more.

We also have this -- more details now from the investigation into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. Newly released data says from the second black box shows that the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, that he repeatedly sped up the plane after deliberately programming its fatal descent into the French Alps.

[11:05:02] That is coming from French investigators. It's based on their early reading of the flight data recorder, which was found just yesterday, after long searching for it, blackened and burned at the crash site.

Will Ripley is following all of these new details from Duesseldorf, Germany. So, Will, what more are you finding?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really horrifying, Kate, as investigators put the pieces together and keep -- continue to compile all of the data they have recovered and are now analyzing. To think that Andreas Lubitz was in that cockpit. The plan was at 38,000 feet. He programs the autopilot to 100 feet, and then several times increases the speed as the plane was descending towards the French Alps.

And yet the whole time he's breathing normally, he's not responding as the captain, Patrick Sondenheimer, was banging desperately on the door. The alarms started sounding because the plane was accelerating. The system was selling Lubitz it was unsafe. And yet he didn't respond; and in fact he kept increasing the speed even more. Passengers screaming in the cabin, looking at the window, and Lubitz breathing normally as he perhaps has the most terrifying view of all, seeing those mountains coming closer.

Investigators believe, Kate, he was alive and conscious up until that very last moment of impact when the plane was essentially obliterated because of the rate of speed. You saw what the data recorder looked like, buried eight inches into the dirt. It is unthinkable what these people went through in the back at the hands of Andreas Lubitz, who very deliberately steered that plane right into the mountain range.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the more we learn, the more difficult it is to believe that this actually is how this has played out. Will Ripley following all the late details for us from Dusseldorf, Germany. So much more coming out. The second black box has been found and they're just now starting to go through that initial data. So much data in there to comb through. Will, thanks so much.

Imagine this: Being adrift at sea for more than two months. Tthat is the remarkable story of one sailor back on dry land today. He was found alive and well after 66 days at sea. Take a look at the rescue. Here's a video -- Louis Jordan being hoisted aboard a Coast Guard helicopter. He had been picked up by a cargo ship some 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina. So how did he survive two months plus at sea? Nick Valencia is in

Norfolk, Virginia. Nick, you were able to speak to him. Did he talk about the conditions that he was up against? And really, what happened? Why was he caught there?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely, Kate. I caught up with him and his family at the hospital just a few hours after he was rescued, was there for that very emotional reunion that he had with his father. And he spoke about the extreme conditions that he was up against. At one point, he said the waves came up to his mast, knocked that off, it damaged the rudder on his ship. He was unable to steer it at times. He said he capsized a total of three times on this journey back to land saying that it was just incredible that he was able to survive so long.

I did ask the Coast Guard if there was any reason for them to be suspicious of Louis Jordan's story. They said absolutely not. They said, to the contrary, it's very remarkable that he was able to survive in such frigid conditions.

So I asked 37-year-old Louis Jordan how he was able to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

LOUIS JORDAN, RESCUED AT SEA: Well, I was living on my boat. And when I got hungry, I just threw my cast net and caught some fish, brought them in from the river and fried them up. Free food, free rent, living in the water.

I took my sailboat out to the ocean to go fishing and my sailboat got capsized. Turned all the way around and I had broken my shoulder. You see my collarbone here? It has a big knot in it that shouldn't be there. So I have this big bruise here. And I couldn't repair my mast right away. I had to wait quite awhile for the shoulder to heal.

I was running out of water, drinking a pint a day for a very long time, rationing that water. Almost out. Almost out. Finally, God answered my prayer right before I ran out of water, kept me going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: He said it was really the faith that got him through it all. His intentions, Kate, initially were to get away from the marina where he was trying to fish and he said the fish just weren't showing up anymore so he wanted to take a bigger adventure out into the Gulfstream. And he said he didn't have the intention of being gone as long as he was. Kate.

BOLDUAN: I would say not. He seems pretty calm, considering the ordeal that he went through, two-plus months at sea. Nick Valenica, thanks so much, Nick.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, a big miss for the monthly jobs report. The Commerce Secretary is joining us this hour with her take on what the numbers mean for you. But next CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo, she's going to be joining

us to talk about the very latest twist in the Germanwings flight disaster.

[11:10:00]

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BOLDUAN: Disturbing new details on Germanwings Flight 9525. Data from the second black box showing now that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately reprogrammed the autopilot, putting the plane into its fatal descent toward an altitude of just 100 feet. And he repeatedly accelerated the speed of descent as it was going down, eventually killing all 149 passengers and crew onboard. This latest information coming from French investigators; it's based on their initial reading of the flight data recorder, which was found yesterday, buried, black, and burned at the crash site.

Let's bring in aviation analyst Mary Schiavo -- she of course is a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation -- for more on this. So Mary, what do you make of this? This is the initial information that they're getting from the flight data recorder. What's your read on what they're putting out right now?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATIONA ANALYST: Well, certainly it confirms what the prosecutor said basis on the cockpit voice recorder, that he was conscious, alive, that he deliberately did it. I would expect them to change it from an involuntary manslaughter to a homicide investigation and follow up with additional information they'll get from the black boxes.

The flight data recorder will a lot more; it will have all the flight controls, every movement he made in flying the plane. They'll be able to tell everything that he did, if he continued to put the nose down more and more, any other things that he did in the cockpit.

There's about 500 parameters, different things that are collected on the flight data recorder. And it prints out -- the print-out of it looks a lot like an EKG.

[11:15:03] so they'll have a lot more data, but certainly everything that they have seen so far from the data confirms their initial suspicions.

BOLDUAN: Now, Mary, what do you make of the fact that it was on autopilot? He kept reprogramming, speeding up the descent, but it was on autopilot that whole time. Why?

SCHIAVO: That's pretty typical. Well, autopilot delivers a smooth flight, autopilot delivers the plane exactly where you want it. It's because it's very easy. All you have to do is -- it's kind of like dialing it in. All you have to do is dial in additional descent, a rate of descent, additional pitch, where you want the nose vis-a-vis the horizon. And you can adjust the airspeed too.

So autopilot just makes it easy and quick for the pilot to continue to fly. I'm a little surprised, because I would have thought he would have hand-flown it. That actually did surprise me. But, that a very quick and easy way to fly, autopilot.

BOLDUAN: That's kind of why I asked. I don't know if that's just of the, kind of the picture that's being painted of his intent and the fact that they're now calling it, of course, premeditated murder. I think I was hearing from our reporters on the ground, our correspondents on the ground, that at the point of impact, they were going 420 miles an hour.

You can just imagine what the passengers were seeing outside the window and what Andreas Lubitz was saying outside his window. What it comes to, is there any more evidence, is there any more data, that you, yourself, want to learn or think you need to learn, before you have a pretty clear image of what you think happened?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think we have a pretty clear image of what happened, but I think some really crucial data that will help the investigators, because you remember, part of every crash is making recommendations going forward, so it cannot happen again. And they're going to have to listen very carefully to that CVR, and also look at the flight data recorder, to find what was done with the door, what about those safety measures? Did he do that additional locking mechanisms, on the door, to lock out the co-pilot? What else can we learn to keep this from ever happening again?

And since he was flying it on autopilot, could a mechanism, such as a addition to the ground proximity warning system, this is a system that you hear on the cock-pit voice recorder, that says terrain, terrain, pull up.

If some kind of automation can be put on the plane, so if the crash with the ground is imminent, the plane will take control of the pilot and avoid it. And those kinds of thing you can learn from the cock- pit voice recorder and from the flight data recorder. And I think it's really urgent that they learn those lessons because there are usually copycats out there. We don't want this to be able to be repeated.

BOLDUAN: That seems like a very interesting recommendation. We know that the German Aviation Association, they've put together a task force, on their own, to take a look at ways, maybe, of changing the cock-pit door, but also, recommendations, maybe like this, that you're talking about, changes that can be made, that would avoid this ever happening again, even though this is such an extreme case as we learn every little detail that's coming out. Mary, I'm sure we'll be talking more about this. Thank you, as always.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

[11:17:54] BOLDUAN: Ahead AT THIS HOUR, the U.S. Commerce Secretary, she's going to be joining us live to talk about today's job report numbers being called, by most, a miss.

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[11:21:40] BOLDUAN: This morning, a big miss on the monthly jobs report. The disappointing numbers came out just a short time ago, showing fewer jobs added last month and sluggish wage growth. The White House put out this statement following the announcement. This: "a range of factors, including the weather and global economic slowdown have affected economic data for the first quarter. The President has been clear that he will continue to push for policies including, investments in infrastructure and relief from the sequester, that would help ensure the strong underlying longer-term trends persist."

Let's talk more about that. Let's talk about what that all means for you with Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker. She is joining from Washington, right now. Secretary, thanks so much for joining me.

PENNY PRITZKER, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you.

PRITZKER: It's great to be here and to have the opportunity to talk about our economy, which remains strong and continues to grow. You know we've created over 12 million jobs over the last 61 months. And in fact, in the last year, the private sector has created 3.1 million jobs. So, the United States continues to have a strong economy and continues to be growing.

BOLDUAN: What do you see behind this month's -- you can call it a hiccup, you can call it a huge miss, it's being described differently by everyone. What do you prescribe as the problem with last month's numbers?

PRITZKER: Well, I think you have to anticipate fluctuation month to month. We've come off of three months of really strong job growth in this country. Our country continues to grow. We've had weather issues. The west coast ports slowed down, has had some impact on GDP. So, there's some things that are temporal. But, the United States continues to be the No. 1 place in the world to invest. In fact, wages numbers have -- wages are ticking up, and so, we're very optimistic about the future of the United States.

You think about the fact, you know, strongest place to invest according to A.T. Kearney, two years in a row, great universities investment in R&D, so many things that we have going for us, low cost and abundant energy, a terrific workforce, incredibly productive, very flexible. So, lots of positive things going on in the United States.

It doesn't mean we don't have more to do. We still have to invest in infrastructure and that's a big issue that's facing Congress, as to what we're going to do for infrastructure investment over the upcoming years. We've got to, also, stay focused on making sure our workforce is trained for the jobs of the 21st century. We need to get our trade agreements done. Those are issues that will be coming up in Congress in April. Very important that we keep markets open around the world, for United States product, because we know that 11.6 million Americans today, their jobs are supported by companies that are exporting. Extremely important that markets are available for our American products. [11:24:40] BOLDUAN: So you lay out well some of your priorities are in

trying to spur more job creation. You mentioned wages and I wanted to ask you. McDonald's kind of joined the trend, this week, in saying that they're going to be raising wages by more than 10 percent for some of its workers. But there was the fine print, if you will, or not so fine print, that doesn't include the workers at franchises. And those franchise stores make up some 90 percent of their stores. Is McDonald's doing the right thing, do you think?

PRITZKER: I think the move by McDonald's is terrific. They're setting an example for their franchisees. They don't control their franchisees. They don't control the wages their franchisees pay. They're saying, we as a corporation think this is the right standard for our employees.

They, also, did more for their employees. They improved the benefits, including more workforce training, for the people who work for corporate McDonald's, continuing this trend that we're seeing around the United States of companies getting involved in making sure that our workforce, in the United States, is prepared for jobs of the 21st century. And that those -- that that training is aimed at jobs, as opposed to just being something that is we're training people, without a focus, and having business leaders lead. And so, I think McDonald's move is something to be applauded.

BOLDUAN: Wal-Mart has done the same. Talking about a lot of those lower income, those lower wage jobs, a lot of people saying the focus now needs to be in that mid-range of getting those wages to increase, as well. But, a lot to discuss today. Thank you very much, Secretary, for your time. I really appreciate it.

PRITZKER: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Of course. Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, the framework for a landmark nuclear deal with the Iranians is in place. Now the President has to sell it to a very skeptical Congress. We'll going to ask a top Republican what he thinks of the agreement. That's next.

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