Unemployment Number Drops; Unemployment Down to 8.8 Percent
MALVEAUX: Here's a look at what's ahead "On the Rundown." Jobs numbers are up, unemployment down. We'll tell you what today's new report means for the economy. Also, what is all the radiation in Japan doing to the marine life? We're going to go to the Georgia Aquarium to get some answers. And some fear that Britain's royal wedding could be ruined. We're going to tell you why. Good, but not great. All in all, though, there is some encouraging numbers out today for the monthly jobs report, numbers better, in fact, than most of the experts expected. The Labor Department reports that 216,000 jobs were created last month. Now, that knocks the unemployment rate down just a notch, to 8.8 percent. That's the lowest, though, it's been in two years. Our Christine Romans, she's joining us from New York. So, Christine, tell us what this means. It's modest growth, but it's growth, nevertheless. Are people going to feel this? Is this significant?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you where people are feeling it, Suzanne. They're feeling it if you have just recently lost your job, you're finding that it's a little easier to get a job. If you have been out for work for a very long time, you are not feeling it. So, it's this two-speed recovery here, almost two years after the recession ended, just now starting to get some growth and some momentum in jobs creation. So, people at the very front end who just lost a job are having an easier time finding a job than people at the very end. Let's talk about where those jobs are being created, Suzanne. They're being created in business and professional services. They're being created in health care, in hospitality. In leisure, bars and restaurants, hotels are hiring people again. That's showing an economy that is starting to gain some momentum. Temporary workers, also adding jobs. This has been a big boom over the past year or so, companies, instead of adding permanent workers, they're testing the waters on the economy and they're adding temporary workers. And a lot of people in the outplacement firms tell me -- you know, the headhunters and the like, tell me that many of those temporary jobs are starting to turn into permanent jobs now, so that's been good for people. But you're losing jobs in some of those local governments. You know, state budgets have been really tough so government workers have been losing their jobs and that continues there. One last point I want to make, Suzanne, something I think that your beat, your White House beat, you know very well. That group of people who have been out of work for a very long time, they're now out of work on average 39 weeks. That becomes a political problem. When you have so many people out of work for such a long time, they're starting to really, you know, shake things up and say, what are you doing about this. We're starting to see employment benefits cut back in some of the states. What are we going to do about a really big group of people who have been out of work so long? So 39 weeks the average length of unemployment, and that's still a problem in this report, Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: That's a tough one for the Obama administration. Do we think that the sign of the jobs numbers that it's a sign the economy is recovering, or is it really too soon to tell right now?</s>ROMANS: You know, there are some who are telling me that this is a -- the kind of improvement you want to see but again and again and again and again. You need some bigger numbers than this and you need to keep putting them back to back to back. And so, this is still the beginning of the recovery in this. And I'm going to be honest with you, high oil prices, something that CEOs are watching very, very closely, some of them had been saying well, we think we're going to add some workers this year. Oh, wait, I have to see what kind of impact high oil prices might have on my business. There's still a lot of uncertainties out there, but we're moving in the right direction here and that's what's so key and critical. You know, 8.8 percent, it's the best jobless rate in two years. It's been a terrible two years, but it's the best jobless rate in two years. And the private sector job growth, 230,000 jobs private businesses, you've had 1.8 million of those jobs created in over a year. That's the right direction.</s>MALVEAUX: And what about the temporary workers? You said there were like 30,000 that were added. Is that significant?</s>ROMANS: We're watching those temporary workers because that's often kind of a foreshadowing of an economy that's going to be getting -- labor market, rather, that's going to be getting better. And right now, you've got -- the labor market is a lagging indicator, as the economists say. So the economy is getting better, has been getting better, but they haven't been adding jobs because businesses are so scared. They have been adding temporary workers. They have been adding contract workers. So that's been an area where there's been some action. You want to see them turn into permanent jobs eventually, right? But I will say something else. You have got workers themselves who are more and more saying, I think I'm going to get a new job this year. That's showing some activity and action in the labor market, and that's also a good thing to see, too.</s>MALVEAUX: That's good too.</s>ROMANS: I mean, I've been saying -- quite frankly, Suzanne, bosses beware, because your workers have been working really hard. As soon as they see an opening someplace else, they might go. So bosses be good to your -- be good to your peeps.</s>MALVEAUX: They might be jumping. All right, that's a good message, bosses beware. Thank you, Christine. Appreciate it. Well, the royal wedding may be a royal security mess. Anarchists are promising trouble in London. CNN talks to one of the leaders about why. And the nuclear crisis in Japan deepening. The latest on the spread of radiation and how it's affecting now sea life.