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Latest U.S. Jobs Report; Testing Drone Mail Delivery To A Remote Island; Selfless Act Of A Homecoming Queen. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired October 11, 2021 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Happy Monday to you, I`m Carl Azuz. We`re getting off the ground with a new week of news and that ain`t the only thing taking
flight in today`s show. We`ll explain in just a couple minutes. First though, the U.S. government has released its monthly jobs report.
It`s one measure of how the economy as a whole is doing. The report that just came out is for the month of September and it was a disappointment.
Economists had expected that 479,000 jobs would have been added last month.
The actual number was well below half that according to the U.S. Labor Department. It was the second month in a row that the number of jobs added
to the American economy was dramatically lower than what economists predicted, and no one knows exactly why the growth in this area has slowed
down.
Many economists point to continued concerns about the corona virus pandemic and the Delta variant of the disease. That was reportedly twice as
contagious as previous versions of it, but while new COVID cases hit a high point in late August and early September. They have been steadily
decreasing since then.
Critics of the government stimulus program said they were too generous. That they gave too much money to people who weren`t working. States that
opted out of those programs early did see their employment grow faster according to government data, but the Federal stimulus programs ended in
early September and still many Americans haven`t returned to work.
Experts say other reasons for this could include problems finding childcare, workers considering changing their careers and requirements that
employees have a corona virus vaccine which some don`t want to get. These could all be factors in why fewer jobs are being added.
The unemployment rate, the percentage of American workers who don`t have a job, that fell to 4.8 percent in September from 5.2 percent the month
before. Those are the lowest unemployment rates since March of last year, and usually that would be good news.
But economists say the unemployment rate only counts the workers who are actively looking for jobs, many Americans are not so they say that picture
may not be as pretty as the number alone suggests. Overall, U.S. job growth in September was the lowest it`s been all year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARIN CAIFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Joe Biden addressing a disappointing September job report.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our recovery`s moving forward, even in the face of a COVID pandemic.
CAIFA: The Labor Department said U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs last month.
MARK HAMRICK, BANKRITE WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: The economy is still very much dramatically being effected by the pandemic in different ways.
CAIFA: Public education jobs, local and state fell during the back-to- school months. The leisure and hospitality industry added just 74,000 jobs, still struggling to recoup more than 1 million pandemic forced losses.
NELA RICHARDSON, ADP CHIEF ECONOMIST: People are less willing, I think, to work in -- in jobs requiring close public contact.
CAIFA: The unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent, despite millions of job openings. The labor participation rate barely budged. Nela Richardson,
Chief Economist at ADP says that is a key number to watch.
RICHARDSON: Getting people back into the labor market whatever the bottlenecks or reasons are is going to be really important for a full
recovery. Not just in the unemployment rate, but an inclusive recovery that really reaches every vulnerable group.
CAIFA: Mark Hamrick, Washington Bureau Chief for Bankrite, says October may give a more accurate recovery snapshot.
HAMRICK: We`ll get well past the period when the Federal pandemic unemployment benefits were expiring and there may be some transitions in
people`s lives there.
CAIFA: Holiday seasonal hiring will also kick into high gear. The U.S. is still down 5 million jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In
Washington, I`m Karin Caifa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Where would you find the Orkney Islands? Northern Scotland, Western Ireland, West of Morocco or East of Argentina. The Orkney
Islands are located off the northern coast of the Scottish mainland.
There are dozens of islands in the archipelago. Encyclopedia Britannica says about 20 of them are inhabited and as it looks for new and cheaper
ways to bring residents their mail here, the UK`s Royal Mail Service is testing out drones. We`re not talking about individual deliveries to
individual homes.
We`re talking about an unmanned aerial vehicle, a small plane that flies without a pilot to an airport in one of the Orkney Islands where a human
postal worker would then get its cargo and deliver it to houses. The UAV could eventually take the job away from a human pilot and some observers
say industrial drones are more likely to malfunction than planes or mail trucks.
So there are concerns about reliability, as well as what happens if a drone crashes and causes property damage. Here are some potential upsides.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS PAXTON, UK ROYAL MAIL: There are 70 people that live on that island and the -- the drone is large enough to carry all the mail for that
particular community. The UAV is capable of flying in all weather. It`s less susceptible to tides and -- and bad weather, and the conventional
forms of -- of transport. So we really see it as -- as being a big quality of service benefit.
It`s also a lot more environmentally friendly than the conventional forms of transport. They are burning a lot less fuel than the conventional craft
because all they`ve got to transport is the weight of the vehicle and the weight of the cargo that it -- it carries. There are no passengers.
There are no pilots to add extra weight, so it burns a fraction of the fuel that you would normally see a conventional aircraft taking. (Inaudible) a
distance off the Cornish mainland. It`s too far for somebody to see with the naked eye, so it was the first beyond the visual line of site trial.
It`s the first time (inaudible) had done that in the UK. It`s a stepping stone to the north (inaudible) which -- which we`ve done -- which is a
stepping stone to the -- to the ultimately, this is the ambition of serving a -- an entire community via drone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Brittney Walters is one of the ladies nominated to be Homecoming Queen at Forest County Agricultural High School in Mississippi. She didn`t
win the title, but thanks for a selfless act by another student named Nyla Covington, Brittney still took home the crown. Here is an exceptional story
of how one student honored another as well as a mom who passed away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRITTNEY WALTER, STUDENT AT FOREST COUNTY AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL: All I could think about was my mom and how she wanted to be here, and then the
next thing I know Nyla walked towards me and she hugged me and I just really didn`t think anything of it. And then she started to take off her
crown.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forest County Agricultural High School`s Homecoming 2021 will be a day many will never forget. After being named Homecoming
Queen, Senior Nyla Covington immediately decided to give her crown to Brittney Walters.
NYLA COVINGTON, STUDENT AT FOREST COUNTY AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL: It already belong to her, and she was like (inaudible) no, come here. You`re
your mom`s queen. I want her to know that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nyla`s kind and selfless act comes after Brittney lost her mother A.J. Walters to cancer that Friday morning.
WALTERS: My mom would have done the same thing if she was in Nyla`s shoes, and I just -- I felt my mom`s presence there and I can see my mom through
Nyla. They have the same exact, caring, giving spirit and it`s really fulfilling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was an emotional and difficult for Brittney and her family, but her mother never wanted her to miss this special day.
SEAN WALTERS, BRITNEY WALTERS` FATHER: She realized that she may not be able to make it out here and she -- she made her promise her that I was
going to come out here with Brittney. Because she didn`t want to ruin her - - her day, her Homecoming Day. That`s something that she`ll remember for -- for the rest of her life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And thanks to Nyla, Homecoming night will always be remembered and so will A.J. who was an administrative assistant at the high
school and was very involved in her daughter`s schools.
WILL WHEAT, PRINCIPAL OF FOREST COUNTY AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL: Her spirit is what made her special. Even on the hardest days, even battling cancer,
she always had a smile on her face.
COVINGTON: She`s like, the person I want everybody to be like and -- because she just smiled.
WALTERS: She was a giving person. She -- she tried to help every person she come in contact with, encourage him, compliment them.
COVINGTON: I feel this her way of still touching people, because that`s what she was her whole life around was trying to help and touch people and
this is her way of still doing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brittney`s father, Sean Walters and Principal Will Wheat hope that A.J.`s kindness and Nyla`s beautiful gesture will encourage
others to also have a giving heart.
WHEAT: We hope that Nyla`s selfless act will be a light for the rest of society. So we`re very proud of her, and her giving measure.
S. WALTERS: Obviously she has great parents that raised her, raised her well and, you know, that`s -- that`s hard to find now days and that speaks
a lot to them too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: So we certainly recognize Brittney, Nyla, the Walters family and everyone else in their community of Brooklyn, Mississippi. And before we
leave you today, we`d like to give a shout out to some of our viewers in Newark, Delaware.
Thank you, Christiana High School for requesting a mention on our You Tube channel. I`m Carl Azuz. CNN 10 hopes to see you again tomorrow.
END
