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CNN Saturday Morning News
Virtually no New Jobs Were Created Last Month in U.S.
Aired January 10, 2004 - 08:07 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush travel to Mexico on Monday for the Summit of the Americas. He may run into a substantial number of former American jobs there. Virtually no new jobs were created last month in this country. But corporate profits are up.
White House correspondent Dana Bash is live in Crawford, Texas.
She joins us now with more -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Renay, corporate profits being up, housing being up, real estate, and the economy getting better in general is what we hear from President Bush constantly. But the White House is well aware that there is one lagging number, and that is jobs. And that is why there was a lot of anticipation at the White House for the new jobs report that came out yesterday. And privately there certainly was a lot of disappointment because Bush officials did not get the figures that they were hoping for.
Unemployment fell from 5.9 percent to 5.7 percent, but only 1,000 new jobs were created and economists were hoping that that would be more like the 120,000 range. They were really hoping to get a big boost because other economic signs were so good.
Now, the president was out talking about the economy yesterday and he tried to put a positive spin on these new numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I see things happening. Unemployment dropped today to 5.7 percent. That's not good enough. We want more people still working. But nevertheless, it is a positive sign that the economy is getting better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, part of the problem is that that 5.7 percent number, which is 2/10 of a percentage of a drop, which is a large drop in looking at these figures, part of the problem is that the reason why it dropped is because people essentially stopped looking for work. They are not actually going out there. They are, as economists say, frustrated, and they're just simply not seeking work. And that is certainly not a good sign for the White House.
And, as you can imagine, Renay, Democrats on the campaign trail and in Congress seized on this, reminding Americans that about three million jobs have been lost since Mr. Bush has been in office.
But this also is opening up the new debate for this election year and that is what to do about those tax cuts that President Bush signed into law. The president is going to make a big push to make those tax cuts permanent, saying that that is the only way that people will feel confident and that small businesses especially, that they can hire new workers.
But Democrats, as we have been hearing over the past months, we see in Iowa and New Hampshire, they are debating what part of the tax cut to repeal. That is something that we are going to see more and more as this election year goes on -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: All right, Dana Bash live from Crawford, Texas.
Thanks so much, Dana.
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 10, 2004 - 08:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush travel to Mexico on Monday for the Summit of the Americas. He may run into a substantial number of former American jobs there. Virtually no new jobs were created last month in this country. But corporate profits are up.
White House correspondent Dana Bash is live in Crawford, Texas.
She joins us now with more -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Renay, corporate profits being up, housing being up, real estate, and the economy getting better in general is what we hear from President Bush constantly. But the White House is well aware that there is one lagging number, and that is jobs. And that is why there was a lot of anticipation at the White House for the new jobs report that came out yesterday. And privately there certainly was a lot of disappointment because Bush officials did not get the figures that they were hoping for.
Unemployment fell from 5.9 percent to 5.7 percent, but only 1,000 new jobs were created and economists were hoping that that would be more like the 120,000 range. They were really hoping to get a big boost because other economic signs were so good.
Now, the president was out talking about the economy yesterday and he tried to put a positive spin on these new numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I see things happening. Unemployment dropped today to 5.7 percent. That's not good enough. We want more people still working. But nevertheless, it is a positive sign that the economy is getting better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, part of the problem is that that 5.7 percent number, which is 2/10 of a percentage of a drop, which is a large drop in looking at these figures, part of the problem is that the reason why it dropped is because people essentially stopped looking for work. They are not actually going out there. They are, as economists say, frustrated, and they're just simply not seeking work. And that is certainly not a good sign for the White House.
And, as you can imagine, Renay, Democrats on the campaign trail and in Congress seized on this, reminding Americans that about three million jobs have been lost since Mr. Bush has been in office.
But this also is opening up the new debate for this election year and that is what to do about those tax cuts that President Bush signed into law. The president is going to make a big push to make those tax cuts permanent, saying that that is the only way that people will feel confident and that small businesses especially, that they can hire new workers.
But Democrats, as we have been hearing over the past months, we see in Iowa and New Hampshire, they are debating what part of the tax cut to repeal. That is something that we are going to see more and more as this election year goes on -- Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: All right, Dana Bash live from Crawford, Texas.
Thanks so much, Dana.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
