president can make a difference. are thinking about african- american unemployment now, how it is persistently twice what white and employment is. one big reason for that is that lots of african-american folks have records. if you are targeted in your incentives to employers to hire people to take a chance -- and it is not much of a chance, because the people have a good job with a living wage, they will be doing the right thing. they will be motivated, like that caller is, to turn around their lives. we hope in this recovery that people like sean are not left out. interestedld be very -- thomas jefferson eight tweets this in. i will be very interested in hearing your opinion of the trayvon martin case. guest: i was disappointed in the verdict, i said i think -- as i think a lot of of african americans were. the idea is that there could be this big guy was basically

stocking this skinny black teenager who doesn't have a this skinnylking black teenager who doesn't have a weapon. the big guy has begun. they get into it -- has a gun. they get into a fight and he gets off on self-defense. i think that made a lot of folks have doubts about our criminal justice system and whether it really respectful lives of all of our citizens. respects the lives of all of our citizens. one of your callers engine earlier the dred scott case, that the black man has no rights that the white man is bound to respect. the trayvon martin -- really, the george zimmerman case -- made some people feel like that, like african american lives don't mean as much as other people. host: we have been talking to paul butler, a law professor at georgetown, a graduate of yale

and harvard. next the pentagon release a the labor department releases the december jobs report. from the cato institute legal ability list debate the

constitutionality of president obama's recess appointments. it's disappointing all of us to see the key or it your ration of the security inside of iraq. you know, i spent lot of my life over there. from 2006 in to 2006 to september of 2010, i was there as we continued to reduce the level of violence in the sectarian violence was going on. i believe we left it in a place where it was capable to move forward. we have seen it because of several political issues internal to iraq that is security situation is now deinvolved in to something that is in my mind concerning. but this is not just about iraq. in my mind, it's something we have to be cognizant of. what is going on in syria and lebanon. what is going on inside of iraq. it's this sectarian potential building of sectarian conflict

and the exploitation by demonstrate actors such as iraq and other organizations who try to take advantage of this. this weekend on c-span general chief of staff general ray odierno look at the mideast. and the future of the u.s. army. the pentagon has completed a study of sexual assault among cadets in the military service academy. today member of the sexual assault prevention and response office briefed reporters on their findings. this is 25 minutes. [inaudible conversations]

good morning, ladies and gentlemen. thank you for being here today. [inaudible] the new directer of sexual assault prevention and response office. he's been on the job by five days. he's joined by the deputy director. the experts on the report. dr. van winkle is the expert who conducted the focus group. they're happy to answer your questions. please state your name and media organization before asking your question, we have 30 minutes. >> thank you, kathy. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. kathy indicated my name is major general jeff snowe. i'm the director of sexual

assault response office. if fortunate to join biest steamed colleagues here. today we publicly released the department of defense annual report to congress on sexual harassment and violence at the military sft academy. for academic program year 2012 to 2013. i want to take a few minutes to share highlight of the report and open it up to questions for you. it provides an assessment of the effectiveness of the academy's programs. statistical data and the results of focus groups of cadets mid shipment, faculty, and staff conducted by the deafen manpower data center. before i get in to this specific of the report, i want to make one point clear. sexual assault is a crime and has no place at the academies just as it has no place in our own forces. the academies are where we develop the future leader of the

military. that is why it is essential that the department instill in the future leaders a commitment to fostering a climate of dignity and respect. where cadets are empowered, and possess a social courage take action when faced with situations at written for sexual assault, sexual harassment, and inappropriate behavior of any kind. the department's assessment found that each of the three military service academies are compliant with our policies regarding sexual harassment and sexual assault for the school year that started in june of 2012 and ended in may of 2013. the academy's instituted new initiative during the year to enhance training, improve awareness, and promote a safe environment for all cadets in mid shipment. these measures are competed in the report and we can address this the specifics if you have follow-up questions. during the academic year,

reports of sexual assault decreased at two of the three academies when compared to the previous academic year. as part of our assessment, faculty and staff participated in focus group along with cadets in mid shipment. during the focus groups

participants believe that report of sexual assault or harassment would be taken seriously by academy leadership and dealt with appropriately. that is good. cadets in mid shipment also identify peer pressure as barrier to reporting. that's not good. and both the academic year, which concluded this past may, and intervening period we have seen considerable energy and emphasis placed on the service academy sexual assault prevention and response programs to continue this important work secretary hagel has directed academy super intent to implement the following initiatives.

first, to ensure unity of effort and purpose. the service academy superintendent will implement sexual assault and harassment prevention and response strategic plan that are aligned with their respective service strategic plans. second, to improve the effectivenesses of policies and programs, superintendents will involve can dmet mid shipment and command climate assessment and implement metrics in assessment tools to availability and regulate report progress and prevention and response. third, to increase a victim confidence associated with reporting. the superintendents must develop an implement solutions that address concerns of social retaliation amongst peers. engage with leaders and supervisors of teams, clubs, and other organizations. and provide --

influencers with the skill and knowledge to strengthen their ongoing programs. fourth, to further increase understanding of the impact of disrespectful and criminal behaviors the superintendents will develop learning objectives and incorporate them in relating classes within the academic curriculum. finally, to improve the safety and the reduce posed they are review and expand constitutional alcohol policy to address risk factors beyond individual use factor it is my mission its our

objective at the military service academy. with that i say thank you and look forward to taking your questions. >> please. >> thank you for your time today. you mentioned the numbers were down at government three academy. can you give us academy by academy numbers. also, can you tell us possible reported incidents where they student on student or some of them faculty or supervisor on student? >> yeah.

thank you, tom. let me take the first part of the question and have him talk to the second. with regard to the report to break down by academy. in the case of the united states military academy, they decreased from 5. there were 15 in academic program year' 11,' 12. went to 109 -- in the case of the that value academy they increased by 2. they went from 13 to 15 in 2012 and 2013. in the case of air force academy. they decreased by 7. they went from 52 to 45 in 2012 and 2013. and if you could talk to the second part of the question. >> yes, sir. the vast majority of the 58 reports that we had total that involved cadets mid shipment were just between them. we had only one instance of a

faculty member involved in a case of abusive sexual contact at the naval academy. for the details on that, i would refer you to the navel academy. >> thank you. >> hi, courtney. bc news. two questions. is there -- do you have any data it a naval academy the numbers went up whether there was any kind of similar increase in female mid shipment -- like, the percentage up as well for members of women? i don't know if that's something track. can you give us a rough idea how you are dwriening sexual assault for the report? is it more than an actual rape? is it -- can i get the category? >> yeah. the first answer is one. we know in the case report. sexual assault we know it's under reported crime. one of the priorities is to increase the reporting.

it does a number of thing. i'm going let nate talk to the specific. >> absolutely. the number of women at the naval academy are about the same as they were in years prior. but to be completely accurate i would encourage you to check with the public affairs officer for expect number. as far as the second part of your question, again. >> if how you define sexual assault. >> sexual assault in the department of deference represents a range of crimes between adults. that range involves unwanted -- illegal sexual touching, nonpenetrating crimes like groping. all the way through penetrating crimes like rape. >> it does not include sexual harass. that's correct. >> colonel -- [inaudible] >> anything that suggests the air force had the most incidents. i believe in the previous year

they had the most incidents as well. is in anything that suggests on the focus of group work why this is so the air force academy? >> good question. the air force reporting climate is very positive, and that's what we've heard in numerous visits there, and the doctor participated and can give you some specific examples. >> one of the things that the air force academy does well. they have a sexual assault response coordinatorrer who is well-known throughout the academy. her -- she and her team work overtime in getting in front of the cadet and just as an example of my experience with them, asking a cadet at the air force if you needed to report a sexual assault, what would you do? almost every single of them, in my experience, to a f said i would call 3-rbgs 3-rbgs 3-rbgs-sark. they knew her by name and because she gets in front of them within the first week that are there. at least if you have --

>> i think we didn't ask specifically about that number, but to echo what he said, we did hear that at the air force they are more familiar. they feel more comfortable with her. she has higher visibility. that is something we heard. but didn't speak specifically to that. >> teresa beasley. >> i will say this. one of the benefits, i think, of a report -- and when you look at the acrass service academy. you can take this -- we identified as best practice and recommend it and apply it across the other academy. >> that's very true, sir. they all have very strong people in their sark officers. we call that out and really do appreciate all the hard work that is going on everywhere. it's just that over time that mrs. beasley has been there the longest, i think, of all the sark. she has a good institutional history within the air force academy. >> christine the shill.

can you tell us about the cases. are there any trends or generalizations you can make for the cases? is it mostly male and female? and secondly, what are some examples of sexist behaviors you will target? and how will these be addressed? >> i'm going tell you that, yes, it is more the case of man on woman. i want to refer to the doctor again. i think it would be helpful in term of the comments you saw focus groups. >> yeah. it is male on female largely. we only had -- i believe, two inassistances of male on male violence. essentially these are folks that are peers or near peer. and almost every single one of the cases have were cadet on cadet. >> in term of the sexist behavior, the survey which we conducted in 2012, has a few measures. sexual harassment being one of them nap involves crude --

we also asked about sexist behavior. and these would be verbal and nonverbal behaviors that would be insulting or offensive based on someone's gender. for example, women don't belong at the academy or similar type comment. the rape for crude offensive whatever this is the typically locker room talk. and sexist behavior. on the survey in 2012, those were high. particularly for women around 20eu8 90% of women indicating they had experienced that in the last twelve months.

is part of their education. and especially as part of their learning to be an air force of the united states forces. >> and just to underscore that, to make it clear is why do we look at the experience of sexual harassment and sexist behavior. of course those behaviors are intolerable. we don't want that to occur there. but there is a strong positive correlation between the experience of sexual harassment and the eventual sexual assault of people in military units. and so we think that because these two problems are the same continuum of harm. getting at that sexual harassment, the crude and sexist behavior is part of the prevention work that goes to sexual assault. >> answers now but how do you think you can attack those crack down on the current behavior? >> that's something that the secretary is directed the superintendents to take a look at. nobody knows their academies

better than the superintendents. and so we are going to be standing behind for consultational purposes. the secretary is going to be directing the superintendent to take a look at that and innovate solutions. >> [inaudible] it sound like -- [inaudible] what you want to substitute is generational. still in the prosis of -- process of that 70 years later. and i was wondering for you can comment on that. the second thing to ask you to comment on. cat debts in mid shipment come in from civilian world.

it is going to take time. in term of the cadets themselves, i think the real key from day one to -- the appropriate values. i mean, at the service academy, as you were talking about the best and the brightest. the competitive to get in there. but yet i think the key is day one of the values that, you know, we try and impart upon them so they get off on the right foot. and the panel -- >> the department's approach to sexual assault at large we tend

impart a set of values and exec taste and standard of behavior. that's how we've lead change in the other issues and lead it here. we recognize the continuum of harm he referenced. the environment in which harassment and sexist behavior and crudest happen in the environment in which assaults occur. and so we have to start on the low end of the continuum of harm. create the nonpermissive environment. deplete total informations. that's what we do. and hold them appropriately accountable. and that is the state and state for the department. to achieve and grant this crime by the cultural imperative of team commitment, probably value. and at the service academy specifically leading your peer is probably the hardest thing you have to do. sticking your neck out to tell someone to knock it off is a difficult thing because, you know, it creates social

retaliation. that's what we've heard in the focus groups. and we want to teach our future leaders those officers that have to lead from day one on the standards they need to do it at service academy in the armed forces as well. >> we have a question. >> "politico" -- [inaudible]

withregard to that we are making sure what the requirements of that are. and working with the white house on ensuring we have a clear plan forward to make sure we meet that requirement. >> we have taken strategic approach, as you know we published a strategy last year.

we take the national defense authorization act initiative. we apply them in the line of effort, the prevention investigation accountability and oversight line of effort and have a robust oversight structure that includes weekly meetings with the secretary of defense. he calls them the accountability meeting. he's holding the department -- we report them with metrics. we are working them on metrics. he can talk about it more. we've prepared the first set of six metrics that have been through the joint chief and received their approval of both the joinlt chief and also the

off of secretary of defense will be providing those to the white house in the next week. over the next few months will be developing a number of secondary set of metrics that get more at prevalence and culture change. >> i do. thank you, kathy. and thank you for being here. i just wanted to conclude by making a couple of points.

>> term of preventing sexual assault. investigating the crime, providing effective assistance and support to victims and holding our military accountability for progress on this issue. at the service academies, and throughout the entire department. it is clear from this report we must expand and improve the prevention efforts that are having a positive impact throughout each of the academy and the services. we'll continue to implement programs and initiatives that make a difference. for those who have been a victim we are working hard establish a climate where the assaults do not happen. if you have been a victim, please consider reaching out to your local sark, victim

advocate, a health care professional, or the dod safe helpline. i assure you you will be treated with the privacy you desire, the sensitivity you deserve, and the seriousness this crime demand. thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] in a week on a special friday night edition of booktv, former deafen secretary robert gates on his book "duty: memoir of a secretary of war ." in it he writes about his experiences dumping the -- during the war of iraq and afghanistan.

i think there's a way in which we have set up this sort of impossible series of expectations. especially for our president. but elected officials as a whole. they swoop in. when it doesn't happen we give the congress 9%. and president 39. expectations have to be lower. it's amazing about the american founding. it's not that the founders themselves said, look, don't expect much from government. it is government isn't going to be the main driver of our liberty.

recognizing it's not possible for people from washington, d.c., to rather than nation of 310 million people. "humility." today at labor department released the december jobs report showing the unemployment rate fell from 7% to 6.7% after the economy added 74,000 jobs. he was asked about the report at the daily briefings. the jobs number, jay. i seem to remember you at the podium not long ago showing us

charts of jobs dwrowt over the past couple of years, and implication taking some credit white house taking credit for president's policy determining job growth. now we have a report barely treading water 74,000 jobs created. and probably more ominously the work force 8.2 million jobs.

we need to continue to have that continues the recovery and expands the opportunity that economic growth affords. there's no question when you have, again, i think we have seen periods where the numbers have come in way over expectations. where we have seen general is consistent private sector job creation. what we have seen also labor

participation rate notwithstanding is a fall in the unemployment rate from 109% to 6.7%. it's too high. it too high. and not get hung up over fights when we need to be focused on what we can do coming together to spur job creation and economic opportunity. that's what the spt focused on. >> you see it as an ominous jobs report? >> they are talking about it today. i'm not suggesting it's anything beyond the latest report. but i would point you to economist to give you a broader macro picture where we are economically.

the fact is, we have to work to do. we continue to grow and create jobs. we have to do it faster and create more jobs nap should be our priority in washington. that's what folks in the country expect priorities to be. they don't us re-litigating old fights. they don't want us, you know, veering off to have debates about issues that don't seem to affect their lives directly. so presidents very focused on these matters. and you've heard him talk about them a lot lately. you'll hear him talk about them a lot in the coming days and weeks. you can view the rest of the briefing at our website, c-span.org. also today. the head of the bureau of labor statistics testified about the december jobs report at the hearing of the joint economic committee. this is an hour. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] good morning.

vice chair klobuchar, members of the committee. good morning and welcome to theo new year. wel this is commissioner's first appearance before the joint economic committee on behalf oye millions of americans who cannot yet find jobs that are hopeful. . we hope you can bring us better news for the future. i would like to recognize tom nordel who is retiring after 37 years of service. he has been mr. numbers. we thank you for your dedicated service and wish you the best in your future endeavors. the job growth was weak last month. december saw only 87,000 private sector. the unemployment rate did fall to 6.7 percent but it was due to

labor force participation. the precipitation rate is down to 62.8% tying a 36-year low. it sounds impressive 8.2 million private sector jobs over the last 46 months but economic growth during the last half century has been 50% larger than the obama administration. 4.5 million jobs are missing along main street. the best private report of the obama recovery is lower than the regan recovery. not a single month matches even the equivalent of the regan recovery. and we all know we have to do

better. the unemployment rate has decreased and we should be encouraged, but it is nowhere near the 5 percent level the whitehouse promised in the $800 billion stimulus was rushed through congress. the unemployment rate is due to falling labor force precipitation. if the rate had not declined since the president took office it would be nearly 11 percent. a smaller percentage of americans are employed today than when the recession ended. the american people are deeply dissatisfied with the president's solution for the economy. we need solutions so mainstream

businesses can hire again. increasing the minimum wage and washington mandating income, extending unemployment benefits will not increase the outlook. emergency unemployment program is to be used when the unemployment rate is going high. it is the lowest since 2008. so you ask why are the president and senate turning their back on job creation? why doesn't the senate pick up and pass any of the dozens of jobs bills the house has already approved? including the keystone xl pipeline which would create

thousands of middle class jobs. they continue to deny bipartisan reforms that make it easier for states to match local workers with local drugs and to conduct the drug tests for those. we know it is an election year and i hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle remember the measure of american's compassion isn't hoe long we provide unemployment benefits but that we can get them job. i recognize the vice chair. >> thank you chairman brady and thank you for holding this hearing today. i want to thank the member for the 37 years of crunching numbers for us.

and welcome our guest. i am pleased for having the hearing. the monthly employment situation and i look forward to hearing from you on the past months and past years. this is an opportunity to dig deeper into the numbers and get a complete understanding of the employment data. i want to make a couple comments about the economy. as we know the economy has grown for ten-straight quarters with gdp growing at 4.1 percent annual rate. 182,000 jobs were added last month on average. consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity was the strongest it has been in nearly two years. as the home state for target and best buy in minnesota we like

that consumers are getting more confidence. housing is recovering. housing prices were up 23 percent. home prices in 20 leading cities have increased by 14%. manufacture, the engine of innovation, added 568,000 jobs. exporting is another bright spot and that is growing in each of the past four years exceeding the pre-recession peek. this is good news and shows the economy has improved from january of 2009 when we lost more jobs in a month than the people in the state of vermont. there is still more work to do as pointed out.

five years later, we are still adding jobs. you look at the chart showing 46 consecutive months of private sector job growth. it isn't exactly where we want to be, but we have seen 46 straight months of private sector growth. 8.2 million private-sector jobs have been created. the number of unployed working has decreased from 7 in 2009 to less than three, approaching the pre-recession level of 2 for every job opening. the labor market strengthened over the year. because of the drop in government total non-farm payrolls increased by 74,000.

the unemployment rate is 6.7 percent is down more than a percentage point from last december which it was 7.9%. in my state it is at 4.6 percent. the truth is that for most workers the job market is better today than it has been for a number of years. i look forward to your assessment of the labor market in 2013. despite the progress and the drop in the national unemployment rate, long term unemployment is still a very real problem. 4 million americans, 1/3 of unemployed workers have been out of work for six months. this does significant damage to the productivity. in fact, looking back yesterday,

we talked about that fact there has been progress, but the challenges ahead are the productivity and income disparity. we are making progress providing benefits for people who have been out of work for more than six months. that is sponsored by reed and hel heller. it will make sure people will be allowed to pay rent and fill the gas tank. earlier, i released a jec report laying out the economic case for continuing federal unemployment insurance. the long-term unemployment rate is nearly twice what it was

after congress let the federal insurance expire from 1991. you can see the chart where he had the unemployment level in past cases that was allowed to expire. i would like to hear about the data on long-term unemployment. and in several states high long-term unemployment is masked by a lower overall unemployment rate. florida has an unemployment rate below the national employment rate but 46% of the unemployed have been jobless for six months. 60% of manufacture in my state have openings for jobs put they can not find workers with the right skills. this is a bipartisan issue. we have a bill about investing in affective workforce training.

so overall, we still have recovery in the labor market. the economy is proving resilient in 2013. the numbers are not where we want to have them, but when you look at the average year, 182, 000 jobs a month shows we are going into the direction that doesn't just turn money but invent things for the rest of the world and a strong private-sector economy. >> i would like to welcome the 14th commissioner erica groshen. she is the vice president of research and statistics group at the federal bank in new york. and served on advisory boards. she is a visit professor at

barnard college, columbia university and a visiting economist in switzerland. she went to harvard and from the university of wisconsin. welcome and we look forward to your testimony. >> thank you. mr., chairman and members of the committee, thank you for recognizing tom's public service and retirement and the opportunity to discuss the unemployment data we released this morning. you had very good timing in choosing a very interesting report for me to discuss. so, the unemployment rate declined from 7 to 6.7 percent in december. and non-farm payroll payment

went up by 74,000 jobs. 182,000 jobs in 2013, about the same as 2012. in december, employment rose in retail and wholesale trade but fell in the information industry. monthly job gains average 172,000. retail trade added 75,000. food and beverage stores, 12,000. food and clothing, 12,000. general stores, 8,000. and motor vehicles and parts dealers, 7,000 jobs. retail trade employment

increased by 32, 000. wholesale trade over the past year added 8,000 jobs per month. employment and professional and businesses services added 19,000. this industry added 637,000 jobs over the last 12 months. temporary help services added 40,000. accounting for book services lost 25,000 jobs over the month. manufacture employment continued to trend up adding 9,000. they added 77,000 compared to

154,000 in 2012. unemployment and information decreased by 12,000. this reflected a decline in motion picture and sound recording of 14,000 jobs. employment can be volatile from month to month in the movie industry. over the year little net change has shown. construction employment went down and loosing 16,000 jobs. but in 2013, they added 10,000 jobs per month. employment in specialty trades contractors declined by 13,000 in december. possibly reflecting unusually cold weather in parts of the country. health care employment changed little in december with a decrease of 6,000 jobs. over the past year, job growth

has slowed to 17,000 per month compared with the average monthly gain of 27,000 in 2012. in december, employment in most other industries changed little. average hourly earnings of all employees on private non-farm payrolls went up by 2 cents. average earns have gone up by 1.8% over the year. the consumer price index for all urban consumers rose by 1.2%. turning to our survey of households. 6.7% unemployment rate. over the year it declined by 1.2 percent and 1.9 million less

unemployed people. in december, 3.9 unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or so. this was little changed over the month. but down by 894,000 over the past year. the labor force participation rate was down to 8% and over the year it has declined by 8/10ths of a percentage point. the employment to population ratio at 58.6 percent was unchanged in december and over the past 12 months. in fact, this measure has been at this level since late 2009. among those working or look for work in december, 2.4 million

were marginally attached to the labor force and this changed little from the year earlier. these individuals wanted a job, were available for work and looked within the past 12 months. the number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed no job was down. >> as youp you know -- you know -- the unemployment rate fell, is this an encouraging sign of a sustainable recovery?

>> this is one month's number. of course you don't want to get too hung up on one particular number. but most of the change in the unemployment rate, about 2/3rds was due to falling labor force participation. >> which is people giving up on the market. >> the interesting thing is most of the flows were from employment rather from unemployment. but generally speaking it is not as robust a sign as if the fall in unemployment came from creation of jobs. >> do you think this is that drop and the reasons for it is as a troubling or concerning indicator? >> well, i guess it depends on

the question you are asking. it is certainly not a sign of strength. >> we look at, in your report you make the case that here we are 4.5 years after the recession ended and there are fewer payroll jobs than when the recession began and that is creating a gap in jobs in america, so at the rate of the 180,000 jobs a month that is occurring over the last two years, how long will it take before america is simply back to even in payroll jobs? >> it would take about 7 months into july f. for private sector till april. >> so midyear before we break even on the pre-recession payroll amounts. >> that is right.

>> the number of private sector jobs were disappointing for moemost of us who want to see better recovery. the concensus for the report i am told that numbers are statistical insignificant in the sense of what you read. i think you mentioned retail, information and wholesale, what areas were statistically significant? >> the 58,000 jobs created in retail trade were significant. >> and that was in food and clothing? >> widespread in retail trade. so quite a few of the subfactors. wholesale trade increase of 15,000 was statistically

significant. >> was there insight into that? >> a lot of that was in electronic trading. so services provided to firms that are buying inputs and do it electronically. they don't take possession of the inputs they purchase on behalf of the other firms but they facilitate the input of the firms. the other sector that had growth and i want to call your attention is the temporary health service. that added 40,000 jobs. >> thank you. vice chair? >> thank you very much. thank you, commissioner. this morning's report shows job growth not exactly where it was expected but i think we do know

december marks the 46 month of growth. what employment trends did you see in 2013 as a whole in the last year and how would you characterize the state of the labor market this year? >> okay. well, yeah, well overall, today's report isn't strongly encouraging. there was growth. and month-to-month variation is normal. >> so are you basing it on december? i was asking about the entire year. >> so over the year what we have seen is steady, modest growth mostly in the services. we have a ways to go before we return to pre-recession

conditions. but we have seen growth in the industries primarily in professional and businesses services, in health care, in leisure and hospitality. >> one number was you made reference to construction and you talked about the severe cold and i am aware of this since people keep sighting that northern minnesota was colder than mars for a while. >> i re-tweeted that a lot. >> could you talk about that construction number and how the cold could have affected it? >> we have added 122,000 jobs in

construction over the year and the average -- let me take a look here -- okay. and let's see, this particular month most of the decline was in non-residential specialty trade and most of these were in the northeast and midwest and those were the areas that had lower temperatures than normal. >> but overall, 122,000 added. i remember in the past we talked about regional trends, do you see any of those? not just in construction. you can get back to that in

writing. ...

>> this is the latest that we have for unemployment rates. the states with the highest unemployment rates seasonally adjusted our nevada at 9% and rhode island at 9% and michigan at 8.8%. in illinois at 8.7%. the other ones were kind of in that range as well including mississippi and kentucky and tennessee. they round out the top group.

and the states with the lowest unemployment rate our north and south dakota, which is 2.6% and 3.6% respectively as well as nebraska at 3.7% and utah at 4.3% in hawaii and iowa, vermont, wyoming, all at 4.4% and then kansas and new hampshire. >> that is something you have mentioned by what you are seeing with the growth in certain areas. >> absolutely. also the aftermath of the housing crisis. >> yes, i have pointed out that we have seen some dramatic improvements in that area.

>> i appreciated. >> thank you for being here. the labor participation rate is pretty well at a historic low. if we took it into consideration based on the bureau of labor statistics, the unemployment rate would be closer between 10 and 11%, closer to 11%. and i want to talk about that in the context of the job that he said has been created through the service oriented jobs and relate that back what the senator talked about, which is something that the general referred to as a skills gap. do you have an idea of what that looks like in the real world? we have talked about that and our lack of capacity to provide

this for higher tech and more technologically oriented jobs. and what that means and what we should be doing differently than what we are. >> if you could get the microphone please. >> sorry. >> okay, you are getting ready into the realm of policy right here. and i'd like your mind do that this and other statistical agencies do not engage in policy analysis. >> right. >> in particular we don't study and make determinations about whether policies are achieving their goals are proposing their policies to achieve those goals. because it could raise questions about our neutrality and impartiality. >> thank you. i may have misheard the question. i think it was how does the

growth that we are seeing trying to the labor participation, which is something that we all agree is a very low rate. >> yes. and it's not obvious what connection there is between the labor force participation and where this is occurring. >> okay, so clearly there is an increasing number of people dropping out of the work force. and i accept your notion that that is not necessarily where you you're going with the bureau of labor statistics. the would you like to talk about that? >> well, right now my job is as commissioner and i think it's most important for me to up hold the practices and i can talk a little bit about where growth has been occurring.

and what we have seen in terms of the industry wage growth is that much of the growth, when you divided up by broad industry, much of the wage growth has been in the lower wage industria. and when you divided up by occupation, which is a different kind of way to divide up the job growth, there you see the growth and more high wage occupations that he you see in the middle of the distribution. >> thank you. i yield back. >> again, i'd like to be clear. your testimony said that this was principally due to people leaving jobs. and his question was, you know,

in the growth industry, clearly there probably is a relationship between which industries you are seeing contributing to labor participation. not a policy issue. >> okay, so we can look into that for you. that is something that we do track slowly. >> gray. thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to the commissioner. i'd like to tie my comments into this and could you expand upon this this aggregation of the employment statistics around low and middle and high skilled workers and what trends have we observed in the last year and perhaps in last several years with respective categories?

>> oh, all right. okay. so let me take a quick look right here. we're taking a look at what has happened to unemployment rates by education. >> okay. >> and we have seen declines in unemployment rates by education for all of the categories for less than high schools and high school graduates and some colleges and associate degrees that all declined. the largest decline has been a high school diploma and that is partly a factor because it increased during the recession. >> but that is getting into employment attainment based on

this and i am more getting at the growth and jobs based upon the skill profile of the jobs. >> yes. >> so you made the observation that we have seen growth with high skilled jobs. >> yes. >> and a lack of growth with these other jobs, which imply the bar belling of our economy and is something that i've tried to be focused on. because i think it reflects a broader trend of how highly specialized our economy is becoming and the implications of that. >> yes. >> you have any data to show the growth of high versus low as compared to that? >> so i don't have a single measure of scale. but i can tell you which major occupational group had the most wage growth unchecked growth. so in 2012 to 2013 timeframe, we added 669,000 jobs in management professionals and related

occupations. >> and that is enumerator. what is the denominator jobs in those areas? >> okay, so that was a 1.2% growth. >> okay, got it. >> and in maintenance occupations there was 1.8% growth. >> okay. >> sales and office occupations, 310th of a% growth in production and material moving occupations had a decrease of a 10th of a% end in service occupations, an increase of 1.8%. >> got it. >> you probably categorize jobs in these categories as high or middle or low skills? or do you not this aggregate the data? >> generally we do not. >> okay, i understand. because that is a subjective

point. >> and it may be the bottom part of these distributions as well. >> as we have seen the rate of growth in health care has slowed significantly over the last two years, does that correlate growth in the health care sector >> we are still adding this and generally we have been adding that jobs in the health care sector and the pace has slowed in the past year. >> so you see correlations between health care expenditures and growth in the health care sector? >> i have not done that correlation. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you for being here to testify. it is not strongly encouraging and the numbers are well below to add this on a monthly basis.

and i'm sure that you could agree that we have a long way to go on the road to recovery. and we are still well over a million jobs short of where we were in december 2007 at the start of the last recession and the labor participation force has staggering numbers that are really low, almost 350,000 last month alone. many of us refer to this as the jobs gap. in four and a half years after the recession ended, there are still fewer payroll jobs than previous session. so there is a huge jobs gap. the brookings institution estimates that have you done an estimate at all of those types of numbers?

>> we have made a comparison to where we were on the recession started. that we generally don't do the kind of forecasting that would be required to see what job growth would've been in the absence of the recession. that is not really part of a. >> the chairman mentioned in his opening statement when the stimulus bill was passed and it was controversial for many reasons when it was pushed through, the administration said at this point we would be at about a 5% unemployment rate, which we are not anywhere near. but at the average rate of job creation right now, how much longer would it take for them to reach 5% just to get to that level? >> i haven't done that calculation. i know that it will take about seven months for it to get back to the total payroll where we were before. >> but there will be a longer

period of time? >> yes, we can estimate that with a straight line. >> okay. and let me turn to part-time. because the part-time employment in full-time employment has been something else and i'd like to ask questions about that. part-time employment for economic reasons is a measure, some would say, weakness in the labor market. would you agree that that could be viewed as a weakness? >> during recessions you do see an increase in the number of people who are part-time for economic reasons and not getting as many hours as they would like or they would prefer to work full-time and that is why they are in the category. so either they are not getting as many hours as they have taken a part-time job because they haven't found a full-time job. >> we have been postrecession pray while now on the technical side. so a lot of employers are unsure

of these individuals to hire the full-time workers. as the both of the factors? or are there other factors that would contribute to that measure? >> let me make a distinction. number of part-time workers as a percent of the total employed has not changed very much as of late. >> okay. >> we have had a decline for part-time economic reasons although it is still historically high. >> one of the things it will be interesting to watch is the implementation now of the affordable care act. in minnesota i spoke with those who are