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American Morning
Minding Your Business: MLK Day: Are You Working?
Aired January 20, 2003 - 07:43 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: If you're looking for stock trading today, don't look here today. Martin Luther King, with the holiday out today the markets are closed, but that does not stop Andy Serwer from working, because he's always minding our business.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm here. I'm here working.
HEMMER: How are you?
SERWER: Yes, how are you doing, Bill?
HEMMER: Great.
SERWER: Good. Let's talk a little about Martin Luther King Day, the holiday. We decided to delve in a little bit, find out who had the day off nationally, historically. Let's take a look and see how this holiday has unfolded.
It became a holiday in 1986. You can see there. Only about 14 percent of the nation's workers had the day off. Now, we're up to 30 percent. That's kind of typical. It sort of takes a while for holidays to phase in like that.
And now, let's take a look at how it breaks down by various professions and jobs. You can see there, if you're a teacher, well, it's a school holiday. That kind of makes sense. I guess that would be some private schools that are still in session. Banking, well, banks always close down, don't they, Bill?
HEMMER: Yes, they do (ph).
SERWER: Any excuse they get, so that's pretty nice. Retailing, not a big holiday shopping day. And factory workers, it really hasn't caught on, I guess, yet for the nation's factories.
Geographically, the holiday is biggest in the south. You can see here. It's kind of surprising it's not bigger in the Northeast, I think. Midwest still has a ways to go here.
And you know, what's interesting, when the holiday was first proposed, they talked a little bit about having it being a trade-off. In other words, we'll add Martin Luther King Day on, but we'll take one away. And people said, what are you doing to do? Take away the Fourth of July? Take away Thanksgiving? So, while it's very hard to add holidays, businesses don't like that, it's even harder to subtract one.
HEMMER: I saw in that category, though, cable television employees, there was no percentage...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: News people, newsmen, newswomen, production people, we're all here.
HEMMER: It's less than 1 percent.
SERWER: That's right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Good to see you.
SERWER: OK, Bill.
HEMMER: See you next hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 20, 2003 - 07:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: If you're looking for stock trading today, don't look here today. Martin Luther King, with the holiday out today the markets are closed, but that does not stop Andy Serwer from working, because he's always minding our business.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm here. I'm here working.
HEMMER: How are you?
SERWER: Yes, how are you doing, Bill?
HEMMER: Great.
SERWER: Good. Let's talk a little about Martin Luther King Day, the holiday. We decided to delve in a little bit, find out who had the day off nationally, historically. Let's take a look and see how this holiday has unfolded.
It became a holiday in 1986. You can see there. Only about 14 percent of the nation's workers had the day off. Now, we're up to 30 percent. That's kind of typical. It sort of takes a while for holidays to phase in like that.
And now, let's take a look at how it breaks down by various professions and jobs. You can see there, if you're a teacher, well, it's a school holiday. That kind of makes sense. I guess that would be some private schools that are still in session. Banking, well, banks always close down, don't they, Bill?
HEMMER: Yes, they do (ph).
SERWER: Any excuse they get, so that's pretty nice. Retailing, not a big holiday shopping day. And factory workers, it really hasn't caught on, I guess, yet for the nation's factories.
Geographically, the holiday is biggest in the south. You can see here. It's kind of surprising it's not bigger in the Northeast, I think. Midwest still has a ways to go here.
And you know, what's interesting, when the holiday was first proposed, they talked a little bit about having it being a trade-off. In other words, we'll add Martin Luther King Day on, but we'll take one away. And people said, what are you doing to do? Take away the Fourth of July? Take away Thanksgiving? So, while it's very hard to add holidays, businesses don't like that, it's even harder to subtract one.
HEMMER: I saw in that category, though, cable television employees, there was no percentage...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: News people, newsmen, newswomen, production people, we're all here.
HEMMER: It's less than 1 percent.
SERWER: That's right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy. Good to see you.
SERWER: OK, Bill.
HEMMER: See you next hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
