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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Number Of Available Jobs Rose Unexpectedly In April; Lawmakers React To Musk's Comments On Agenda Bill; New Details From Investigation Into Antisemitic Attack. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 04, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:32:45]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

We are getting our first look this week at how the Trump economy is affecting the U.S. labor market. The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that hiring in April increased by 169,000 over March. Economists had actually been expecting a decline. The number of available jobs jumped by more than 190,000 from about 7.2 million in March to 7.4 million in April. But layoffs also saw their biggest increase in nine months.

Let's welcome in Paul Donovan who is the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management. He joins us live this morning from London. Paul, great to have you again this morning.

You have made the point before that with this report especially it's less about any one data point and it's more about the trend. So what trend do you see emerging in the data?

PAUL DONOVAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, UBS GLOBAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Yes, this is a data report which is frankly particularly unreliable in real time. Very few companies bother to tell the Bureau of Labor Statistics what they're actually doing.

So with that we do tend to look at the trends and the trend has been over the course of the last couple of years of a normalization of the U.S. labor market. The post-pandemic churn when everyone was having a midlife crisis and changing their company -- that's not died away and we've seen a decline in the number of externally advertised job offerings over the course of the last couple of years. So the trend is towards fewer job offerings over time.

SOLOMON: What did you make though of the pullback in this report understanding what you just said there in the caveat? But what did you make of the pullback in job postings in sectors like leisure and hospitality? Typically, these discretionary categories -- these are the type of categories where people spend if they're feeling confident about the economy, if they're feeling confident about their financial standing.

What did you make about that?

DONOVAN: Well, what we've been seeing here is a decline in the number of job offerings relative to unemployment in that sector, and that's suggesting a loosening of that labor market. And the trend there has been towards progressive loosening after the very, very tight period that occurred immediately after the pandemic.

Now what I think you've got going on here are probably three things that are causing this.

[05:35:00]

So the first is that, yes, people may be cutting back a bit on some of their discretionary spending. Certainly, people seem to be more price- sensitive.

We also have to reflect though that a lot of people in this sector, a lot of employers in this sector have attempted to become more efficient in how they use labor. And this is no means a uniquely U.S. phenomenon. If I go to my local pub in the United Kingdom to order food, I don't speak to a human being. I order using a QR code. So effectively, I'm working for the pub unpaid. So that's changed the labor structure.

And then the final thing is there have been quite a lot of anecdotal evidence about foreigners perhaps more reluctant to visit the United States and so certainly for the hospitality sector that could be something that we are starting to see come through. People are a little bit more nervous about being tourists in the United States. Those numbers do seem to be dampening down.

SOLOMON: Hmm, yeah.

Another point of caution is that this report was April data, right, so really sort of a lagging indicator. But April -- it was a month where we saw a lot of volatility in the markets. I think a real concern in the business community.

On Thursday though we're going to get the latest weekly jobless claims. Still, economists consider that to be noisy but at least it's weekly. Friday, we get the May jobs report.

What are you expecting?

DONOVAN: Well, the U.S. labor market has been cooling for some time. But really, the full effects of the trade taxes, which have being causing financial markets so much anxiety -- that's not going to show up in the labor market probably for another about six months to be honest. It's really towards the end of the year and that's because the impact on the labor market comes through different ways.

There's the general uncertainty about policy -- these wild swings in policy which may encourage a lot of companies to sort of just sit on their hands and do nothing. We're not going to hire; we're not going to fire. And that I think is going to be the trend that we see. We also get, of course, the direct effect of the trade taxes. These trade taxes will cause some businesses to close and that will have an effect, but that's not going to be immediate. That takes a little while to run through.

But then the really big effects, of course, of these trade taxes will reduce consumer spending power, and if consumption slows down that then hits the labor market with a bit of a lag. You don't fire workers just because you've got five fewer consumers in one week, but if it's a repeated trend over a couple of months you start to think about your employment level.

SOLOMON: So then what are the implications, I mean, of these lagging indicators for the Fed, which we know policy as of late has been to remain steady? But if I hear you say we won't see this really show up in the data in six months, by that point could it theoretically be too late for the Fed if they haven't acted since then? And I'm not saying they will but if it's such a lagging indicator -- I mean, that really sort of puts the Fed in a -- in a bit of a bind.

What do you think?

DONOVAN: Well, this is one of the criticisms of Fed chair Powell's data dependency, which I think is a terrible policy. But reluctantly I am forced to have some sympathy for Powell at the moment because the world swings in policy from the administration that we're getting. You know, today there is an extra 50 percent on U.S. steel consumers overnight.

I mean, this sort of thing is making it very, very difficult to run a preemptive policy to say OK, this is the direction of travel therefore we will anticipate where we're going with rate changes. Very difficult to do that in this situation so it does push you towards data dependency. But yes, the risk with that is the policy then comes too late.

Now there's a halfway house here, of course. The Fed isn't just looking at laggy indicators. There will be a certain amount of anticipation. And I think the Fed is probably moving late third quarter-early fourth quarter of this year on policy and it will then have to move I think quite quickly to counteract the economic slowdown that is likely to be hitting the states at that point.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Certainly a lot to watch and it changes often as you sort of alluded to there.

Paul Donovan, of UBS. Paul, appreciate you being here this morning. Thank you.

DONOVAN: Thank you.

SOLOMON: All right. Still to come, Democratic lawmakers stand in support of Elon Musk while Republicans question his comment. We'll have more reaction from Washington.

Plus, flash flooding in Kansas leads to a state of emergency. The latest on the severe weather when we come back.

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[05:44:10]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon, and here are some of the stories we are watching for you this morning.

The latest U.S. tariff hike has now kicked in. President Trump's executive order doubles the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25 percent to 50 percent. He has claimed that this will ensure the end of steel imports and protect jobs, but critics say that the tariffs will only increase costs for consumers.

South Korea's new president is vowing to build a completely new nation. Lee Jae-myung was sworn in earlier in Seoul and he has promised to revive the country's sputtering economy. He says that he will be firm with North Korea while working to bring peace through dialogue.

Dangerous wildfires burning in three provinces in Canada have prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents. Raging fires in Saskatchewan left skies shrouded in a smoky haze. Canadian fire officials say that there were more than 200 active fires as of Monday.

[05:45:10]

Elon Musk sharing how he apparently really feels about President Trump's big, beautiful bill. He called it "a disgusting abomination," saying that lawmakers who voted for it "know you did wrong." In later posts Musk called for action to fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.

Democratic lawmakers showed their support for his comments on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Breaking news. Elon Musk and I agree with each other. The GOP tax scam is a disgusting abomination. Every single Republican who voted for the one big, ugly bill should be ashamed of themselves.

REP. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): He said people should be ashamed to vote for this bill. I agree with him. Let's hope the Republicans follow him, not Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Some Republican lawmakers, however, say that the opposition from Musk is merely a difference of opinion.

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SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well look, we obviously respect everything that Elon did with DOGE. On this particular issue we have a difference of opinion, and I think it's rooted in the fact that he's accepting the CBO assumptions. So we have a difference of opinion and he's entitled to that opinion. We're going to proceed full speed ahead. My hope is that as he has an opportunity to further assess what this bill actually does that he'll come to a different conclusion.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: I talk to the president quite a bit and I texted Elon and I'm calling him, and I look forward to talking to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Meantime, the White House press secretary says that the opinion of Musk has not swayed the president's thoughts on the bill

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he's sticking to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: CNN's Manu Raju has more on the reaction from lawmakers in Washington.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, Elon Musk calling the Trump bill a "disgusting abomination" really scrambled the politics on Capitol Hill. Democrats came out cheering Musk's post, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader who has really been bashing Musk for months, but at the beginning of his press conference on Tuesday was heralding that post, as well as Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader.

On the other side Republicans pushing back. John Thune, the Senate majority leader who is trying to piece together a coalition to push this bill through the Senate, said that he has a difference of opinion with Musk.

And then sharper criticism from Mike Johnson himself, the Speaker of the House, who shepherded this bill through his chamber. He said that he spoke with Musk at length about what Johnson sees as the virtues of the bill just on Monday. But when Musk came out criticizing this on Tuesday, Johnson fired back and also suggested that Musk's concern was driven in part by the fact that electric vehicle tax incentives would be eliminated from this bill. And, of course, Musk owns Tesla.

JOHNSON: Elon is missing it, OK, and it's not personal. I know that the EV mandate is very important to him. That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things. But for him to come out and pan the whole the bill is to me just very disappointing and very surprising in light of the conversation I had with him yesterday.

RAJU: Now I asked Johnson whether or not he was accusing Musk of attacking this bill simply because of his own business interests and Johnson would not go that far. He said he'd let others draw that conclusion.

However, there are other Republican senators who share some of Musk's concerns about the impact that this bill could have on debt and deficits, including Sen. John Curtis of Utah who I asked about the projection that the House bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, could raise the national deficit by trillions of dollars -- almost $4 trillion over the next several years. He said he was greatly concerned by that conclusion.

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If you look at the House bill, just to simplify it a little bit, we're going to spend in the next 10 years about $20 trillion more than the revenue we bring in, and they're cutting $1.5 trillion out of $20 trillion. Most of us wouldn't do that in our businesses, in our homes, and we certainly don't do it in the state of Utah. And so that's a big concern to me.

RAJU: Now, John Thune, the Senate majority leader, and other top Republicans who support this bill say that economic growth will lead to more revenue coming into the government and they contend that the deficit projections won't be as bad as what that nonpartisan scorekeeper -- the Congressional Budget Office found.

But ultimately it will be up to Thune to try to limit GOP defections in the Senate to just three in order to get this across the finish line, and Thune wants this on President Trump's desk by July fourth.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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SOLOMON: The U.S. State Department has revoked the visas for the family of the suspect in Sunday's antisemitic attack in Colorado. The White House says that the man's wife and five children are now in ICE custody and face expedited removal from the U.S.

[05:50:03]

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says that officials are looking into whether the family knew anything about the attack before it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Now, Mohamed's despicable actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But we're also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack. If they had any knowledge of it or if they provided support to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: CNN's Whitney Wild has the latest now on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Law enforcement says that Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned this attack for a year. At one point he actually tried to get a gun. He'd taken a concealed carry class, he learned to shoot, and then when he went to purchase this gun he was denied because he is not a U.S. citizen. That's when he decided to make Molotov cocktails. And what he told law enforcement was that he learned how to make Molotov cocktails basically by watching videos online.

He waited until one of his five children, his daughter, graduated high school to carry out this attack. And on the day of the attack he drove to Boulder. He dressed as a gardener to try to get as close as possible to this group. And that's when he threw two Molotov cocktails at this group. He had 16 more Molotov cocktails he did not detonate.

He is now facing a very long list of charges. Sixteen charges for attempted first-degree murder. He is also facing charges for the 16 Molotov cocktails he did not detonate. He is also facing charges in federal court. He is facing a hate crime charge.

The law enforcement at the -- at the federal level and the state level has made very clear that the maximum sentences for these long list of charges that he's facing is in effect life behind bars. I mean, just the state charges alone, if he gets the maximum sentence, is more than 400 years behind bars.

We are also learning more about the victims. One of them is a holocaust survivor. We now know the total number of victims is 12. And when we last spoke with Boulder police the latest information on the two victims -- there are two -- there are two victims who remain in the hospital. We don't have much detail beyond that.

Back to you.

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SOLOMON: OK, our thanks to Whitney there.

Authorities in Washington State are asking residents to be on alert as they search for a man suspected of killing his three young daughters. Law enforcement looking for 32-year-old Travis Decker, a military veteran last seen in the Wenatchee National Forest. Prosecutors have charged Decker with kidnapping and murdering his three little girls who were found dead on Monday near a campsite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MIKE MORRISON, CHELAN COUNTY, WASHINGTON: But we are not done searching. As we speak, the marshal's office and the FBI -- they're processing leads, they're conducting follow-up, and we will not rest until Travis is located.

Travis, if you're listening this is your opportunity to turn yourself in. Do the right thing. Do what you need to do and take accountability for your actions. We're not going to go away, we're not going to rest, and we're going to make sure we find you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: The girls were reported missing after their father failed to return them on time from a scheduled visitation. A deputy found the suspect's truck and then the children's bodies about 100 feet away.

Torrential rain in Kansas has caused flash flooding and prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency. The flooding could still get worse as the runoff makes it way to local rivers and they continue to rise. The National Weather Service says that the Wichita airport set a new rainfall record on Tuesday breaking the previous mark for June third set almost 100 years ago.

As we see in this video here, cars have been submerged and stuck on roadways with some drivers trapped and needing rescued from first responders.

A massive dust cloud from the Sahara Desert is sweeping across the Caribbean stretching more than 2,000 miles and triggering air quality alerts. The so-called "Saharan Air Layer" forms each year creating hazy skies, vivid sunsets, and can even suppress hurricane development. Satellite imagery shows the plume of dry air and dust drifting westward toward the U.S. where it's expected to reach Florida and the Gulf Coast in the coming days.

All right. Coming up for us, an elephant walks into a convenience store. No, it's not a joke. Find out what the elephant went for and the shopkeeper's reaction when we come back.

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[05:58:37]

SOLOMON: Well, you may want to think twice about -- before throwing out that old cheese in the back of your fridge. The record for the oldest wheel of parmesan cheese has officially been broken and apparently this is what they say. They say it is still edible at 27 years old. The winning wheel weighs around 79 pounds and is six years older than the previous recordholder.

This Italian cheese -- well, it doesn't come cheap with an estimated value of more than $22,000. I'm still stuck on the it's edible thing, but this is what they tell us.

Hockey fans know the Stanley Cup Final starts today with Florida facing Edmonton. But animal lovers may also want to tune in for the Stanley Pup airing before game two on Friday. The Stanley Pup features 32 rescue dogs each representing an NHL team. Viewers can expect appearances from NHL stars, celebrity guests, and a whole lot of cuteness. The best part is that the pups that you see are available for adoption.

And before we go, an elephant never forgets where the snacks are stored, that is. A shopkeeper in Thailand was caught off guard when a large, wild elephant lumbered into the store. Surveillance footage shows it foraging for food. It apparently went right for the candy counter pounding 10 pounds of sweets and then settling for some dried bananas and peanut snacks.

[06:00:00]

The shop is located near a national park, so elephant sightings aren't exactly unusual. This particular elephant is actually pretty well known in the community. Park rangers were eventually able to guide the hungry pachyderm away.

All right, that'll do it for us this morning. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.