>> this is al jazeera america. live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. the massive data breach of target is larger than reported. hackers not only got debit and credit card numbers but names addresses and phone numbers. an in west virginia a chemical spill left residents without clean water. residents are told to avoid drinking, cooking or bathing with the contaminated tap water. the obama administration said it will recognize same-sex marriages in utah. same-sex couples married in utah

will receive federal benefits. the state still considers the unions unlawful. more americans simply stopped looking for work. the u.s. government is warning americans attending the olympics in russia saying healthcare centers are untested, and there is a risk of terrorists, kidnappings, and bombings. we have more new next hour. inside story is next on al jazeera america. for more an any of our stories head over to our website at www.aljazeera.com. >> last month looked good. new applications for unemployment benefits were down. layoffs were down. the table was set for a great january jobs report, and then no, that's the inside story.

hello, i'm ray suarez. in thes are looking at all the promising data and forecasting better job growth in 2014. the economy added 1 8,000 jobs in 2013 up until december. maybe the u.s. jobs market had finally turned the corner after years of promised corners that didn't work out. then a not so great number. we'll talk about what it might mean and what it doesn't. first let's set the table. it was a disappointing jobs report from the department of labor on friday. just 74,000 jobs were added by u.s. employers in december, the lowest number in three years. the announcement came as a

surprise as economists were pr pre-addicting double that figure. october and november saw more than 200,000 jobs created. >> last month's reports under scores what the president has said repeatedly, we need to pick up the pace of our recovery. >> reporter: retail added the most jobs with a busy holiday season. other expanding industries, manufacturing, mining and business. but growth was marginal in comparison to months before. some sectors saw big cuts in positions such as construction with 9,000 losses. analysts peg this to an exceptionally cold winter. healthcare saw 6,000 jobs cut, the firs worst decline in a dec. another surprise in the report was that the national unemployment level was down to

6.7 percent, a full percentage point lower than at the end of 2012. though it sounds promising that figure is primarily from people giving up the hunt for work. the government only counts active job seekers. >> we're talking about a three-month extent o extension t works. >> reporter: providing unemployment checks to the long-term jobless was allowed to retire last month. now there is an effort to restore those benefits to more than a million people. >> i recommend emergency unemployment benefits. if it were paid for and provisions we could agree to get our economy moving again and put the american people back to work. >> we still have a vast majority of republicans standing in the way of extension of unemployment

benefits. >> last month the federal reserve announced plans to slow down it's ongoing stimulus efforts by $10 billion a month because the economy was looking healthier. jobs numbers are key to that effort. if another month of small gains comes the fed could rethink it's strategy. let me save my guests the trouble oh by saying at the outset one month's report does not say anything definitively about the economy's long-term report, but it is saying something. mark in the last week of last year, and the first week of this

year, numbers were dribbling out that seem to indicate that this coming number was going to be a pretty good one, and then what do you know? 74,000 jobs. what happened? >> yeah, i expected a much better number ray. you know, i think it's a fluke. part of it is weather as you pointed out. it was very cold in december and that had an impact on some industries. this is noisy data, and i think we've got a lot of noise in december. i don't think anything fun fundamental has changed in the job market. we're still creating 200,000 jobs per month. the job market is better than this number suggests. >> mike, as you look over the last couple of years there is a wave affect. effect. ail have a couple of good months an then a bad month that just simply doesn't live up to expectations.

and then this feeling that momentum never developments in job creation. is that a fair analysis? >> i think so. we think that there is probably some problems with seasonal adjustment through the winter throughout the great recession. we've always seen funky job numbers in december and january. while we've had a consistent record of job creation over the past couple of years especially the last two or three months all the surprises are on the down side. anything that surprises us tends to be 150, and now under 1,000 jobs which means that the economy, whenever it errors one way or another, it errors through a weaker economy, more people unemployed, and reaction has the same symmetry. when these jobs numbers come in, people are quick to pull back on benefits and qe. but we're not going to see the same energy with the same

efficiency when we see a weaker number. >> you just heard mike point out all the numbers that came in way different came in to the negative side. is that enough to take a second look at the forecasts for 2014? >> no, i don't think so. and i think basically what happened here was mostly seasonal factors and whether related. obviously, you know, there was a revision back in november to the upside, and i wouldn't put it past it that next month we're going to see this number be revised upward maybe by 60,000 to 70,000. nevertheless, i think that it's not a game changer here. i still see the jobs market growing, and i think we probably this year can average somewhere between 225,000 to 250,000 new jobs per month, even though we are getting off to a rough start. and i kind of suspect that it doesn't change or it will not

change the fed's thinking at this time. besides, as you said at the beginning of the program, just one bad month does not constitute a trend. i don't think the trend is changing at all. if you look at the jobless claim over the past several weeks they have been pretty much in line with expectations. >> mark, one of the most steady performers in good months and bad has been the healthcare industry, and this time it shed jobs for the first time in yea years. do people know what the effect of the affordable healthcare act going to be o yet? >> there is no fundamental change going on in the health industry that would create a decline in job. if anything, healthcare reform would add to employment.

because it's insuring the uninsured which will increase the demand for healthcare and increase the employment in the healthcare sector. i don't think obamacare had any impact on the number per se, and i think it will come out of the data in subsequent months. we'll see much stronger employment gains in the spring. >> we're going to take a short break. when we come back we'll take a longer look for the long-term jobless. in its first week back congress is wrestling with a bill on its unemployment insurance. libby casey has the latest next. this is "inside story."

>> welcome back to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. on this edition of our program we're talking about the new job numbers. the economy added 74,000 jobs in december far short of projections. the nation's unemployment rate fell to 6.7% not because of new jobs but because fewer people mr. looking for work. this news comes as congress is debating whether to reauthorize benefits for the long-term

unemployed. joining us now for that language of the story is al jazeera's capitol hill correspondent, and a familiar face libby casey. where is the action right now, congress declined to extend those benefits at the end of last year. isn't this a simple matter of saying yes or no? >> it had been a fight all this week, so it's bled over into the new year. it comes down to this. republicans are against the bill that democrats have put forth. some of them are philosophically opposed to extending these long-term benefits. they say this is part of an emergency measure created during the depth of the recession, and it's no longer needed. americans don't need to be on unemployment quite that long. others want to see less spending and that will spur on job creation. cold comfort if you want a job right now. and other republicans, and this is the bulk of them say we could talk about this, but we need to

see the paid-fors. how are you going to pay for it? we can't keep spending without seeing how it's going to be paid for. they've put forth items. they say they have to be reasonable in number and relevant, and those are the key words we're hearing from majority leader. >> reasonable in number and relevant. they had accused him of filling the tree. what's filling the tree? >> he blocked any other amendments from coming forward. he did offer yesterday a pay-for, but not just for the three-month extension for the unemployment benefits but closer for a full year, going to november. he did take some things from republicans, restructuring the program so americans would be on unemployment insurance for less time, and also looking for a pay for. the republicans key item he proposed something he got from the republicans, which was to make sure people don't double

dip, get both unemployment insurance and disability. this doesn't go far enough for republicans. that is only part of what republicans have proposed. and some republicans who sided with democrats earlier this week to bring this bill to the floor feel somewhat betrayed in using this in political theater. they said we voted with you to advance it. we have ideas for the paid fors, but you're not letting us bring them to the public, to the floor. >> there are different schools of thought on this. there are republicans, as you mentioned, who don't believe it's good to keep giving people unemployment benefits. but are there those as well who don't want to be drawn into a fight. are they put into a position of voting for benefits for people who can't find work? >> we're talking about a lot of americans. 70,000 lose benefits every week. we're at 1.4 million americans. democrats will use this over the

next couple of weeks and months to portray republicans as unfriendly to the working people, not dealing well with those table issues, those kitchen table issues. that's why you see republicans saying, look, we believe in this, we want to help our constituents, but you can't spend and spend and spend. let's offer some pay-fors, and we'll talk. >> libby casey, good to see you. let me bring the panel back in. this has been a tough time, but an unusually tough time for the long-term unemployed. they're having trouble getting back on their horse. >> you know, it almost seems to me as though we have a scandal here in new jersey, this might turn out to be the washington labor scandal. it appears to me that if these--the unemployment payouts get back into place, that we'll see jobs creations zoom.

what am i saying here? maybe, maybe, just maybe these numbers are really not for real. >> is there anything to indicate a lot of these people would go and find jobs if they weren't getting some form of benefit? >> no, the academic research on this, and it's quite voluminous now given our experience over the last several years is that most of the people that will run out of benefits will leave the labor force. many are older workers, 50s, 60s, they'll simply stop looking. they're disengaged from the workforce and drop out. the unemployment rate will decline but for the wrong reason, these folks are going to leave. there are some folks who will take a job. i'm not discounting that. that's part of it, but it's a very small part of it. most of the affect is people are going to be leaving the

workforce. >> even those who are reluctant to extend the benefits isn't there some economic stimtive affect that comes from giving money to people that they're almost certainly going to go out and spend? >> absolutely. right now the deficit is closed at a very, very rapid clip i in 2013. so the idea that the short or medium term deficit is not a relevant story any more. between the fiscal cliff and sequestration, it's a wise investment for congress to make. and the job market is weak for people with jobs. wages are low, people are not out there looking for new jobs. the economy, it's not just a matter of the unemployed. it's weak overall. anything that boosts spending and gets people out there with money, it would be a huge boost and a wise investment. >> mike, you heard mark mention a lot of people will take the

signal and leave the labor force all together. aren't we right now at surprisingly low levels of labor force participation already given the number of adults a lot fewer people are working than should be? >> right, i mean, the labor force participation rate has fallen quite a bit, and it's still ful falling. it means the number of people who are out there looking for work. some of that comes from aging of the population. some of it comes from people seeking more schooling. but a sizable amount is people who have become detached from multi periods of unemployment. we saw the jobs number where there is a weak job number. but unemployment fell quickly. some of it has to do with surveys, but the unemployment rate is telling us less and less about the full health of the economy. canceling the unemployment insurance would only make this problem worse. >> peter, is that a temporary effect, if things did begin to pick up later in the year, would

we see a lot of these people who have fallen over the rolls come back into the job pool? >> well, it depends. you know, some of the people that are seeking jocks out there just can't fit the jobs that are bees offered. you know, that's a question of whether or not innovation takes over, and whether the people are willing to take on some new type of enterprise that they might be engaged with. it's hard to say. but certainly, you know, i do agree if you extend the payroll insurance obviously these people are going to go out and spend, and that certainly gives some sort of a boost to the economy. >> we're joined from new york. we'll take a short break. when we come back we'll talk more about the size and shape of the labor force going forward and what the rest of the year might look like. this is inside story.

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the inquiry had recommended better rail maintenance and

>> welcome back to inside story. i'm ray suarez. we're talking jobs and the economy on this edition of the program. one month does not make a pattern, but the new jobs report is a surprise. maybe the economy is not ready to roar in 2014. mike, a lot of stories, the early handicapping of what happened in this latest jobs report talks about the weather, and i'm wondering whether when you lose shopping days, when you lose work days, to whether that is not just made up somewhere else, or if it is simply lost

economic activity, lost economic opportunity when the weather finally does warm up. spring is going to come in the united states. >> right, you know, it's a pretty bad winter right now, but you're going to see shifting forward and back wards. iyou know, sometimes the seasonally adjustment for the winters has been rough over the past couple of years. what i'm concerned about, the facts thafactors we were hopinge want to see that up 115,000 a month, and it may not be in the cards to push that into the next year. >> what about the role of government spending.

it may have put a damper on things. is it a good thing for the federal government to lessen it's involvement in the economy. spend less than the gdp. >> in the short term, no. all of our budget concerns are focused on healthcare spending. that already has started to slow. if that trend conditions we cone don't have a long-term deficit problem. right now it's closer at the rate of military mobilizations. we should be at full employment, but we're not at full employment. more spending by the government especially when interest rates are low, it would be wise investment in the short term. >> peter, in a certainly sense, as the federal government

shrinks slowly the portion of the national economic activity that is represents, will former public employees find employment. >> in an economy that has been in slow gear for the past three or four years, obviously you know, it's not good, and you need government spending to basically kick in the power to accelerate economic activity. of course, there is no question that the sequester and the budget cuts that we had certainly have weighed negatively on economic activity. and so i guess i have to agree that to a certain respect we need some spending, and it goes

back to pure politics, and it goes back to what we said just a few moments ago, that if the unemployment benefits are extended obviously that puts more money into the pocketbooks of people who are unemployed, and they're going to spend it. from that perspective in the short term it's a negative. but in the long term it's obviously wise and sound economic policy to cut spending and reduce your budget. >> mark, it's not just federal employment that is shrinking, state, county municipal employment is shrinking, too. another percentage point off the national unemployment rate, is it that significant? >> i think if you look at th the decline from the peak in state and government local employment,

it probably easy up to three- or four-tenths of the unemployment. i think the good news, though, is that the job declines >> this is start to go turn in a positive direction. >> do we know if those hundreds of thousands of people have been able to find work in the private sector? >> we don't have the precise data to know exactly what these folks are doing.

some are unemployed. they're having a difficult time. let's say that you're a teacher, 50 years old, you lost your job in toledo, ohio, i think you're probably having a difficult time getting back in to work. you may one of those folks who are stepping out of the labor force. some are. these are skilled--in many cases these are skilled and educated workers, they'll find other work, but i think they're part of the long-term unemployed and they're having a difficult time. >> mike in new york, along with peter, thanks to all of you for your participation today. good to talk to you. that brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story." thanks for being with us. in washington, i'm ray suarez.

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