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American Morning

Highest Monthly Jump in 21 Years in Unemployment

Aired November 02, 2001 - 11:36   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to give you the White House quickly again, with Kelly Wallace.

And, Kelly, it is quite apparent at this time, and Tom Ridge and Robert Mueller said it, in their words, they are learning again everyday, are they not?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are learning new lessons everyday. You heard it, during that briefing, director Mueller saying that similar information that was provided to West Coast local law enforcement officials yesterday has been provided to other states and other localities since the September 11th attacks indicating it is the discretion of state and local officials about how to handle it. You did get the sort of inference though regarding the alert that went out yesterday. There was sort of the recommendation that this remain in the hands of law enforcement. But again, learning as they go along.

Two other highlights, Bill, to mention. You also heard director Mueller talking about the ongoing investigation and who is responsible for sending, for producing and sending those anthrax letters. Clearly, it appears law enforcement officials still do not know who is responsible. They say they are following many, many leads. They are obviously still saying they are not ruling out domestic or international source. And you heard from director Mueller himself, a direct appeal from the American people to be on the look out, if they see anything suspicious, to try and help local law enforcement here.

I don't know if viewers heard this at the end, the alert that the FBI issued a general alert on Monday about possibility of imminent terrorist attack in the United States or against American interests overseas. Governor Ridge saying that alert will remain in effect indefinitely. His message, Americans should be on alert, but that they should go about their business. He said says he understands this is a bit of a contradictory message, but he says the world changed, law enforcement should be on alert, but the American people should go about their business.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Kelly, quickly here, the thing that struck me is what Robert Mueller said. He said, since September 11th, there have been numerous amounts of information passed along to states and the leading officials in those states. It's just that yesterday, California decided to make it public. Did they give any more information there at the White House as to what the previous threats or information may have been?

WALLACE: They did not. Obviously, we'll follow on that. They did not. You heard director Mueller sort of motioning to Governor ridge that he had in fact had passed along some information to Pennsylvania when Governor Ridge served as that state's governor that affected a concern in that state, so no more information.

Again, what you did have yesterday, was uncorroborated information, but there was some specificity to it. Obviously, the unspecified reports involving suspension bridges along the West Coast. The message is the governor of California felt it important to relate that to the people of California. Again, though, Governor Ridge saying we are learning as we go along. He will be having conversation with governors, states and other localities about the best way it handle this in the future.

HEMMER: Kelly, thanks to you.

Further now in New York City, lower Manhattan once again, show you the image we're seeing of a live picture, hundreds, if not thousands of firefighters walking away from their previous post where they had come down there to show their protests for the number of firefighters and police officers who have been taken off the job as the recovery effort continues at ground zero. The firefighters lost about 343 of their men, and they estimate that 250 are still buried in the rubble. The police department lost 23, and 21 of whom, have said they have not been recovered at this time. Fire officials are fearing at this time the site that have clearly civilian bodies buried there. We estimate in the thousands right now, those remains that have not been claimed or found just yet.

The concern there is that the operation, the recovery operation, will go on a much more expedited, much quicker pace and not giving full respect to the continued search for human remains. That's the reason for the firefighters trickling down there in lower Manhattan, a rather interesting visual today that we are seeing live in New York City.

I want to get back to the economy quickly now. The job numbers are rout. A lot of people don't like it. Clearly, we are seeing a number of layoffs since the attacks in early September.

Brooks Jackson is tracking with that with us live in Washington now.

Brooks, good morning.

BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

And there's not too much to like in this report. It's been reported earlier. It's the highest monthly jump in 21 years, 5.4 percent unemployment. The important thing about this report is it's the first that gives us a real, good, hard look at the economic damage since September 11th, because the previous month's report was based on a survey that happened just about at the moment of the attacks. This one tells us almost exactly what has happened in the month since the September 11th attacks, and it's much worse than expected. Economists were projecting maybe 200,000, 300,000 jobs lost. I think the consensus was 300,000. In fact, it was 415,000 jobs lost.

And it's much broader than just the travel industry. Let's look at the travel industry. We have heard a lot about that. Hotels, 46,000 jobs lost. Air transportation, that's the airline industry, 42,000 jobs lost. Eating and drinking places, bars and restaurants, there are 42, 000 jobs gone there. Auto services, this is mostly car rental agencies, 13,000 jobs, transportation services, 11,000 jobs lost. A total in the airline and travel industry of about 154,000 jobs. Now that's a lot, but it's -- the damage elsewhere is much worse. As you can see, that's a little over a third of the total jobs lost.

Let's look at the rest of the economy now. In factory employment 142,000 jobs lost. We've been looking for signs of a turnaround there. Instead we got the 15th consecutive month of losses in factory jobs. Temporary help, 107,000 jobs lost. Temporary workers of course frequently the first to go in a downturn. Construction has been a bright spot, but home sales are off, 30,000 construction jobs gone. Stock brokers and commodity brokers, 6,000 jobs gone. Regrettably, some of those jobs were held by people by people who died, and that's why they're gone. Oil and gas extraction -- the gas prices are going down, so the drilling rigs are being idled, 4,000 jobs gone. That had been another bright spot.

And there are very few bright spots in this report, Bill. It is, as I said, worse than expected, and there's worse to come. Economists are projecting perhaps another 1 million to 2 million jobs will be lost before this economic downturn bottoms out and starts to get better.

O'BRIEN: OK, Brooks, thanks.

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