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American Morning

Unemployment Rate Now at 5.4 Percent

Aired November 02, 2001 - 09:30   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.
ANDY SERWER, CNN ANCHOR: You let the bell squeak in there. But you know, I don't think it's a science there; it's an art as to exactly when they ring that bell, don't you think?

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: So what do the markets have in store for us today?

SERWER: Well, obviously we had that massive jobless report that came out at 8:30, a lot worse than people anticipated. The unemployment rate now 5.4 percent. We were looking for 5.2 percent. And even more serious than that was the number of jobs lost in October, 415,000. Economists looking for only about 300,000. And these numbers are, you know, you've got to go back decades, at least as far as the number of jobs lost, 21 years to get that kind of amount of jobs. And I think we may have a chart here which shows the unemployment rate. Let's see if we can get that up, going back to the beginning of the decade. I'm not sure if we have it.

But you can see, let me tell you...

ZAHN: What does it show you, Andy. Give a visual.

SERWER: There it is.

ZAHN: You ask and you get.

SERWER: There it is. There we go. You can see the unemployment rate back in the beginning of the decade, was up around 7 percent, then we fell all the way to the end of decade, and now we are really starting to climb back up to over 5 percent, but you know, it's interesting, two points: one, the economists used to say the unemployment rate could never really get below 6 percent, 7 percent, and us continue to have a healthy economy, because they said the economy would be overheating, so we're still at a level that's pretty low. I don't know if you guys remember back in early 1980s, the unemployment rate was 10.8 percent. I remember, because I was out there looking for a job back then. That was tough.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Right out of college, with those unemployment rates. So it's all what you're used to.

SERWER: Yes, and we're getting back up there.

What a crazy week for the financial markets. I mean, we had stocks soaring, stocks plummeting, the economy contracting, the first sign that we're in recession, stimulus package in Capitol Hill, Microsoft settling, and to finish the week off, Warren Buffett buys Fruit of the Loom, the giant underwear company. So that puts things in perspective.

ZAHN: Now had he been looking at this company for a long time?

SERWER: He had been looking at it. My understanding is he had been considering it's in bankruptcy, and he bought this company for about $840 million dollars, so Warren Buffet...

ZAHN: Was that a good buy?

SERWER: Well, it's hard to say. But if Buffett buys it, I imagine it probably is.

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