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American Morning

Labor Department Reports 223,000 Jobs Were Lost in April

Aired May 04, 2001 - 10:04   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: The other story we're following this morning, the economy. Economists taking the pulse of the economy may have felt their own heartbeats quicken a little bit this morning. About 90 minutes ago the Labor Department released its latest unemployment figures and the news may send shudders through those already worried about their bottom line.

CNN Financial News reporter Chris Huntington is joining us now from New York with the latest. Chris, I haven't talked to you in a while. Good morning. Good to see you today.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Stephen. Yeah, good to talk with you.

FRAZIER: It was a surprise, wasn't it, 223,000 jobs lost. They thought we would gain jobs overall.

HUNTINGTON: Yes, I think you can call this one a bombshell. The expectation as late as last night was that there would be some scant job creation in the economy. The headline figure of a loss of 223,000 jobs is the worst monthly job loss since 1991, since the last recession. So definitely tough news to digest.

FRAZIER: And where is that coming?

HUNTINGTON: Well, it came across the entire private sector. In fact, the big surprise probably was a big loss in the service sector. Manufacturing we've known for quite some time is very weak. But this month around, this latest report showing a big drop in the service sector, as well, and that is concerning.

FRAZIER: We talked in the last segment with somebody who said and this is happening across the nation as well, too. No more regional pockets of trouble.

HUNTINGTON: No more regional pockets of trouble you're saying?

FRAZIER: Right. I mean no more regional pockets that escape the trouble, I guess.

HUNTINGTON: Right. I think that's a safe way to put it. Yeah, there's no easy place to, no safe hiding place right now across the economy. The, another bit of concern about this report is that it does not include the last two weeks of April and one thing we know is that new claims for unemployment insurance ran, again, at a rate not seen since the last recession, again, in the last two weeks of April. So that speaks to more tough news from the labor market still to come.

FRAZIER: In your experience, Chris, is there any kind of a seasonal upturn in jobs, then, as we get into the warmer weather?

HUNTINGTON: There certainly is, particularly in outdoor related activities, construction. But these numbers are, in fact, seasonally adjusted. The labor statistics are run through all kinds of statistical models that try to correct for these seasonal deviations. So, in fact, what we are getting here is a corrected number, if you will. It's not the raw data.

But this is the Labor Department's best guess at the essential impact on the labor market. So the fact that the Labor Department is reporting a loss of 223,000, that's a seasonally adjusted number designed to take into consideration things like construction jobs and so forth.

FRAZIER: A lot of things to chew your way through in only 90 minutes. Chris Huntington, thanks for giving us that update on what it all means.

HUNTINGTON: You're very welcome.

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