if automobile sales are stimulated, i think probably what's happened is a lot of sales have come out of inventory. because they come out of inventory, that's not going to show up at the factories. but if that's going to have an affect, it will have an affect going forward because it means factories will come back on line, hopefully come back on line quicker, and we'll see some automobile manufacturing late -- later down the line if it has a big impact. and do you expect to see

anything resulting from that? and a lot of it is going to infrastructure. and so i guess what, if any, areas -- what areas might be affected by that? are you following me? >> yeah. yes, i do. that's actually a really difficult question in a period when the labor market is declining. when we do our surveys, we're asking how many people do you have onboard right now? we're not asking them to -- >> right. >> -- to speculate on what the impact has been on any other sort of policy. but if -- i don't know where the stimulus money is going to be spent, what industries. but if -- i would expect going forward if you look at those particular industries and look at how the industries are performing going forward, that might give you insight on the effect of the stimulus. >> you know, you talk a little

earlier and you talked briefly about it, about consumer confidence. and how significant that is. from all that you have seen, what can you glean from your report, are you -- i take it you get a hi, at least, that people are feeling a little bit better about things? is that a reasonable statement? i don't want to put words in your mouth. >> yes, i think it is. >> okay. if that were to continue, do you think that you would see this broad moderation that you talked about continue or do you think that it would -- you would see, say, in certain areas like manufacturing or auto sales or whatever? do you follow me? >> yes. that's a little bit tough. because of losses are very broad, i think probably the

impact will be broad. so i would hope to see that the moderation continues until we get actual job growth. >> and so will you -- when you got this report today, how did you feel? i'm just curious? you always try to get anything out of you sometime. i'm just curious. >> well, it's -- right now it's a strange feeling. because 250,000 jobs, that's really hard on people. but given the context of things, this is good news. >> thank you very much. >> all right. thank you. i was looking at the chart and thinking about how it was quite a bit worse in january of '09. that's right, commissioner hall? >> yes. >> i'm thinking about people getting frustrated with their economic situation, remembering the hole that we had to dig ourselves out of and understanding that it's not going to happen overnight. is that your history with the

labor markets that they can't turn around quickly? >> that's correct. yes. >> okay. the past hearings i've asked you, i told you to keep me owe prized of what is happening with our men and women in uniform. one of the things i found most distressing is that those who have gone over to serve our country, especially in iraq and afghanistan and have really gone over since the 9/11, we call them the gulf war era veterans that their unemployment rate is usually significantly higher because they left jobs behind. i think in minnesota our guard and reserve they left jobs behind and then they come back and those jobs are no longer there. what is the unemployment rate now for gulf war era veterans, those veterans that served in the arms services since september 2001? >> right now, it's 9.8%. >> 9.8%. so that seems closer than it was in the past. what was the last month? >> actually, i don't have that one -- i do.

it was 9.3% last month. but in may it was 11.4%. >> that's when i last talked you to about this. in may, it was 11.4%. so that's a significant change. >> yes. >> to go from 11.4% to either to 9.8%. do you have any reason to know why that happened? >> i don't. i don't. we might be able to look at it a little bit and see if we can see a pattern there. >> yeah, if you could -- maybe it's because my question about this every month. and all the c-span viewers see that and then hiring gulf war veterans and people who are serving. i mean i just find so it disturbing that people have done that and then they serve and then they come back and they don't have a job. so we're going to continue pushing on that issue. but we have seen some improvement. so it is still above the national unemployment rate of 9.4%. and that is 9.8%.

but that gap can decrease, is that right? >> yes. >> it's a fairly small sample of veterans. so the variability in that number can be fairly high. >> all right. >> kit go up and down for no real reason other than statistical. >> thank you. we've also discussed the importance of education and its impact on unemployment. what is the unemployment rate, commissioner hall, for college graduates and the high school graduates and those that do not -- have not completed high school? >> for college graduates, the unemployment rate is 4.7%. for people with high school degrees but no college, the unemployment rate is 9.4%. >> so they're at the national average then? >> yes. >> they're double -- the unemployment rate is that of those with college degrees. >> so what is the unemployment rate for people who haven't finished high school? >> 15.4%. >> you can see why the president

made it a priority to try to get people to not just finish high school but to finish some, at least a year of college. so we go from 4.7% for college degrees to 9.4% for high school graduates to 15.4% for those who haven't finished high school. how has that changed the trends? what are the trends in this area? >> well, the recent trend -- the recent trend is like the overall rate. they've been fairly slack all these unemployment rates have been fairly flat over the last month or two. but the growth since the start of the recession, for example, those without a high school degree, the unemployment rate has gone from 7.9 to 15.4. they had a fairly dramatic increase. >> and that's from what time? >> start of the recession. >> so they've seen a bigger hit percentagewise for people that didn't finish high school even though the other group started

lower. they haven't seen as big a spike in unemployment. >> yes. >> okay. just to conclude with my round here, my colleagues were asking about the stimulus package and the effects of this. we know 5% of the stimulus package money is out of investment piece of it. and so obviously you'll see more effects of that as we go forward. i think the other piece that people don't always think about is that the stimulus -- the recovery act was one-third of the investments. but the other one-third is showing state budgets and unemployment. but the other third is the tax cuts. a third of the stimulus package is actually tax cuts. many of them going to the middle class and tax credits. so what i think is interesting is that you can see the effect of that immediately in the home buying rates i talked about in minnesota and again i'm basing this on our minnesota stats. but also what the realtors have told me in term of what they're

seeing. and the tax credits with the cash for clunkers program. do you see them ripple through the unemployment rates than do you with the spending just because it takes longer to get that money out there? >> well, that's -- yeah. that would be my anticipation. my notion is that payout rate is an important thing on these things. >> okay. >> when they occur and so forth. >> all right. thank you very much, commissioner hall. >> thank you. commissioner hall, how have women fared in this economic down turn and what industries have women lost the most jobs during this recession? >> women have lost about 25% of the jobs during this recession. that means men are losing jobs 3 to 1 compared with women. but that's not -- in a sense

that's normal. the last recession women lost a lot of jobs. but prior to the last recession, women often wouldn't lose jobs at all during the recession. so one thing that happened is whilmen are bearing the bigger brunt of the job loss, women are participating more in the job loss than in the past. so women have lost, at this point, women have lost about 1.7 million jobs so far. >> certainly the equality in job loss is not something that we're working for. but are women moving towards equality in job loss? gaining in job loss during the recession? you could elaborate a little more? >> my guess is that the women's participation rates in a number of industries has gone up. you know, for example, on construction and manufacturing, they're underrepresente edunder.

so when they're hit by the recession, women don't participate so much in the job loss. women representation in other industries can be fairly high. so they participate in the job loss. >> you could comment on the trends of unemployment for minorities? specifically african-americans and latinos? have they leveled off or is it still rising at a fast clip? what is happening there? and in what industry are latinos and african-americans losing the most jobs? >> lately, the unemployment rate rise has flattened out the last couple months, pretty much like the national numbers for minorities. and i think for the most part, the changes to the unemployment rate, while they mirrored the overall unemployment rate, they just mirrored it to a bigger degree. so the overall unemployment rate goes up, it goes up by more for minorities. so the trend is much the same.

>> you could comment on the difference between men and women, african-american women and african-american men and latino women and latino men and differences between african-americans and latinos in terms of unemployment? >> right. the women's unemployment rate is 8.1%. >> for what? women -- >> just total women. 8.1%. men, 10.5%. put that in perspective. for african-americans, unemployment rate is 14.5%. for female headf households,

african-american women, 17.8% unemployment rate. >> so there are more unemployed? >> yes. >> what about latino women? >> female head of household hispanic, 12.8%. and that's actually fairly much in line with the overall unemployment rate latino unemployment rate of 12.3%. >> so latino women are 12.8% and men are -- >> 12.5% so men are probably around 12%. >> okay. and do you sthee leveling offeef or rising or what is the trend with minority unemployment? >> the recession trend lately is leveling off. and i think typically what happens is when things rise, they rise by more for the minorities and things decrease by more for minorities. >> and a gain of what industries

are latinos and african-americans losing most jobs, you know, the sense wrf that job loss is? is it construction? >> the one pattern that jumps out is hispanic representation in construction is fairly high. the -- there is overrepresentation there. construction has been hard hit by this recession. so hispanic unemployment rate has been -- has gone up quite a bit. there's a less simple pattern for african-americans in terms of industry representation. >> and why do you -- why are the numbers telling us that the women minorities are more likely to lose their jobs of the unemployed than men? >> i don't know. i mean that's kind of a big question. it's kind of a research sort of question. obviously certainly industry

representation has an impact. but that will explain some of it. i don't know what else explains it. >> thank you very much. mr. cummings for five minutes. >> thank you very much, madam chair. i want to go back to the question when asking about the military and this whole issue of how much education a person has and i had a town hall meeting the other night, mr. hall. @ @ r,@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @) ready. >> and fees at colleges. so i just wanted to know and let folks know that different from

what you said that the more education one has, the better their chances of being unemployed during these times. i'm letting the veterans know who might be watching that they ought to find out about this new g. i. bill. it's something that went into affect august 1st. it's one thing to have these. it's noerm thing to know about them and then to takekl advanta of them. down very much. very does it seem to suffer as much as far as unemployment. is that right? >> that's right. >> why do you think that is?

do you have any idea? and why you think that might be? >> i don't. i mean there is some evidence that early in a recession there are shortages in certain occupations within health care. more people are looking for work and willing to move over to health care. beyond that, i don't know. >> you know, on another note, yesterday during our press conference with regard to women and health care and i think we may have spoken about it earlier, we learned something that is very interesting. that you is have a situation where a lot of women during the babyboomer age were older than -- i mean the men were older than women they marry. and what happened, what is happening now is that as they go

into medicare with their wives being younger and if the wife is dependent upon the husband for their insurance, when he goes into medicare, she doesn't have any insurance. and so i was just wondering, do you know the unemployment rate for older women? let's say -- i didn't say old, i said older. you may even have a definition for older. i don't know. i want to be very careful. >> i'll take our our oldest group. 55 and older, 7.1% unemployment. >> okay. and is that -- have we seen any kind of trend with regard to that? i mean is this -- just like we've seen different trends going up, down, staying the same over the last few years or what?

i mean, what do you see? i'm talking several months. >> it actually, that's grown a bit lately. last month, 6.4%. prior to that, 5.8%. so that one doesn't seem to have -- doesn't seem to have leveled off the last few months. one of the things that is tricky though when you get anybody in the 55 and over range is whether they're in the labor force or not. it's because they can -- someone can lose a job and just stop looking if they're 55 and over. it may underestimate the issue. >> so there is no way you'd have that breakdown? in other words, a person had a says, you know what, i retire? you wouldn't have that kind of information in these stats? >> no, we don't. >> so there's one other thing that i'm concerned about. and that is the states -- these states running out of money.

do we see any impact with regard to those unemployment rates because almost every state is going through a lot of problems right now. and i'm just wondering, what do we see there? >> the recent trend is they're starting to lose jobs. for a while, state governments were hovering around no job growth, no job loss. so the last three months, we've averaged -- government averaged declining 6,000 jobs a month. so it seems like the employment at the state government level has worsened a witt. >> i see my time has run out. thank you. >> thank you chairman. and commissioner, i was just reading the report here. we have the stock gain -- this is as of two minutes ago. stocks gained early friday after the government, that's you, commissioner hall, reported a surprise drop in the

unemployment rate and a smaller number of job cuts than expected raising hopes that the economy is stabilizing. the dow jones industrial average gained now 75 points. the s&p 500 rose now 7.3 and the nasdaq composite added 14 points. so my question of you is, is this a little bit too exuberant over this news? what do you see in the long haul as we go forward? >> well, first of all, let me say -- i've been -- i've been a very bad predictor of the stock market. >> now that may affect these numbers that you said that. mr. hall! >> and i'm even a bad predictor of how the stock market is going to react to our data. it is very hard for me to see that. so much of it i think winds up being what were people expecting. and that's hard to know.

as to whether -- you know, i have -- i don't know. >> can you compare this to other recessions that you and i have talked before about this? it is so much longer than the temperatuorary recessions we've before. and what you think of these signs of recovery compared to other historical recessions? >> yeah. i mean we're still having significant job loss. but we're not having job loss at sort of historic levels. for a few months we were having job loss at nearly historic levels. over half a million jobs lost per month. so, you know, we sort of settled into what maybe -- i don't want to say more normal. every recession is different. maybe a more normal recession level of job loss. so we still got improvement to go. but the trend sen courais encou >> all right. i want to follow up on the questions about health care and women and unemployment and

clearly they've done some ground breaking work with health care with women and children and how it has a lack of health care has been an impact on them. but i'm getting back to the employment rates. because the first lady of california was out here a week or so ago talking about at some point here more women are going to be employed by men in the workforce. maybe you don't have the numbers at your finger tips because it's not unemployment numbers. it's employment numbers. is that -- maybe it was just in certain areas. >> yeah. actually, i do have that data. >> okay. >> right now men are losing jobs 3 to 1 versus women. and there's been a large job loss. so that means that women's share of payroll jobs is growing pretty steadily. and it's now up to 49.8% of jobs are now held by women. >> right. >> which means that 435,000 more men are currently employed than

women. >> is that why one of my letters that i won't read you to referred to this as a manseccion? so you have -- while women have taken an inordinant amount, there tends to be more women with kids and lack of health care suffer more because of it. we still have seeing growing employment rates of women. and you see more men losing their jobs out of this? is that what you're saying? >> yes. yes. >> okay. >> all right. and why is that, do you think? >> you know, it's probably got to start with representation in particular industries that are hardest hit. you know, construction and manufacturing are particularly hard hit this recession and men are over represented there. >> and so that's where we have a lot of the stimulus money going of which only a quarter of that money has hit yet. so presumably that could help with that particular sector?

is that right? >> potentially. >> i could have it come from a question from one of my constituents. it will be easier. the last thing i'm going to ask about is the importance of discouraged workers. you talk about that in your opening a little bit. these are people who want to work full time but can only find part time work or people who want to work but haven't been looking lately for whatever reason, are those both of those categories in the discouraged worker groups? or it is just people that haven't been hit -- have given up looking for unemployment? >> yeah. well, we have -- something called marginally attached which are people who -- who want to work and that looked within the past year but haven't looked lately. >> and how are their numbers going? >> that number has gone up quite a bit. there are now something like 2.3 million people who are discouraged workers. so they're not counted in the unemployment rate. >> right.

and have their numbers gone up each month? what was the number last month? what what was the percentage increase from the month before? >> yeah, that's tough. those numbers are not seasonally adjusted. there are seasonal things that change it. >> i'm wondering if maybe a number of these people have become marginally attached. they have tried to work but they have tried to look for employment. they've given up and they're out of unemployment numbers s that right? >> that's right. although we do catch them. we have a very broad measure of labor utilization which includes that. >> okay. very good. well, i want to thank you. i'm going to have to head out to do some other things. but, again, just wanted to remind people of the -- what people are still despite this some good news here this month still continue to suffer. i just want to end with a letter we just got this week from a guy in minnesota. he says, my wife lost her job

last august as her company shut her building down and moved all the jobs to boston. she was the major breadwinner in our house and has not been able to find a job since. she's applied numerous places but can't find anyone to hire her. we got a statement in the mail saying our house value dropped from 194,000 to $174,000 yet we still owe over $190,000 on the house. we have a 14--month-old daughter and soon unemployment will end and we're really scared about what's going to happen. i continue to be reminded that while we have seen some stabilization and there is clearly glimmers of hope in this and people have been incredibly determined in my state to start businesses and keep going, we still have a lot of people in our country that are hurting. thank you very much, commissioner hall. >> thank you, senator. some of my colleagues have talks about the report that joint economic committee released yesterday showing that 1.4 million women have lost their

health insurance during this economic down turn due to losing their jobs or their spouse losing his job. and we know that employers are looking at ways to cut costs and many of them are eliminating health insurance coverage. and i'd like to know, commissioner, do you have any idea on the loss of employer based health coverage during this resnegs. >> we don't collect direct data on very often. there is an annual benefit to the release once a year that does talk about that. right now the most recent data is i think for 2007. we won't get 2008 until this fall. and this is -- >> when will you have this? >> it is a report that the census puts out in the fall. i think it is september or

october. when they talk about health care coverage. we have data by industry. that doesn't really tell you how many people have lost their health insurance, et cetera. >> but can it tell you if certain types of employees are more vulnerable than others because they are employed in certain business that's are losing jobs or, for example, are part time workers and lower wage workers at higher risk due to the cost saving measures? >> yes. our details are going to come out fairly shortly for march. but in general, i can tell you that right now 85% of full time employees have access to health care. so i think you see the shift from part time to full time

work. we have health care issues there. and full time employment, so far this recession is falling by nearly 9 million people. so this is pretty significant. >> mr. employers told us the rising cost of health insurance is unsustainable. do you think they're contributing to the flat labor market? >> i would imagine they are. the most obvious impact is on wage growth. and -- >> do you have any data on how have ight impact on looked at likely impact. there are studies that take away from wage growth. we have data on benefits.

we don't do that much on what is causing benefits to decline. >> could you give to the committee the report that's have come out on that particular area so that we can study the impact on wage growth on the side of employer-based insurance. >> is there a positive feedback affect in labor markets. the cause of the moderation and decline in unemployment. does that increase consumer confidence and lead to more sales and spur businesses to hire more workers? do you monitor this in the labor market? it is sort of what i would --

what you always see.i would -- you know, when the economy turns bad, consumers start to lose confidence, stop spending. and then the lack of spending means people lose jobs and people lose jobs and they stop spending. so what we're talking about now, hopefully, is the reverse. is spending starts to increase, job losses decline, job loss declines will increase confidence and we'll have this speed back. >> my time has expired. >> thank you, mr. hall, thank you for your testimony and just one question and then a comment. we know during a recession people will turn to higher education. to get graduate degrees and what have you. does this show up in any of your data in any way? for example, young college graduates who couldn't find work

so they decide to stay in school and to -- would you have that data? any kind of data like that? >> the trend is rising as more and more people are going to college partly because of a reaction about how much more successful people who go to college are in terms of higher earnings, lower unemployment. but also it is probably the case when the job market is this bad there are people who otherwise might have worked who go on to college or some other type of formal training because they're not really doing anything.

so the participation in colleges is at record highs now. >> that's all the more reason why the gi bill that i talked about a little bit earlier is so important because that's another thing that -- another thing that people don't seem to realize. we have a lot of colleges that sit on the board of morgue an state university in baltimore. and what we found is that there are a lot of students because of the economic situation that don't have the money to go to school. so when you have a gi bill which is going to pay tuition fees and boards and those schools, they can appeal to those gis to come back to schools. those are people that come and walk in the door with the

tuition check and board-check right in their hand. so -- and, of course, that keeps your -- what we've found is we have -- just about all of our schools now have had to cut back with regard to employment of our professors and workers because of the fact that the money is beginning to simply dry up. because of the problems and because of the recession, that does not help matters. did you have a comment, mr. hall? you looked like you needed to say something. >> i'm disagreeing with you. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> i think what we're seeing is a lot of things are beginning to

slowly but surely work together. we haven't seen this since 2008. is that right? would this -- would this downward trend, mr. hall, with regard to the unemployment? >> right. is that right? >> yeah. although, i would say it's a flat -- we haven't seen a flat unemployment rate since early 2008. >> early 2008. >> so it's been a while? >> you know. i guess what i'm trying to say is it's so easy for us to look at the glass half empty as opposed to half full. we have to say we're not overly optimistic. but at the same time when we're talking about consumer confidence, when we're talking

about giving people hope and we're praying that they'll go out there and, you know, spend, if they can. we want them to save but also spend. that keeps the economy going. i think it's very important that we look at these things and say, you know what? we are going in the right direction. we're not -- we're definitely not seem like we're falling backwards, we're going forward. an although we may be going forward very slowly, we may be inching along. it reminds me of an insect i saw in my house the other day. it is a little tiny insect. i look at one time on one wall and the next time it was over there on the other wall. it somehow got all the way around to the other wall. my point is that we may take small steps but as they say a journey of 1,000 miles. we begin with the first step. i want to make sure that, you know, we just don't poo-poo what we have been able to accomplish thus far. because i think we in

leadership, if we're not careful and help people not feel the optimism that perhaps they might want to at least begin thinking about it. and so with that, mr. hall, i want to thank you. i want to thank both of you gentlemen for your -- and your department. we rarely thank all the people that back you all up. but we thank you also. have a good month. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. cummings for your participation today and your insightful comments. commissioner hall, in my home state of new york, the unemployment rate was 8.7% in june. a jump of 3.4% from last june. and in new york city, unemployment rate jumped from 9.5% in june. and are these changes similar to the changes in the national

unemployment rate? >> yes. they are. >> and on the national level, we've seen a deceleration in the pace of job losses in recent months. and how does that compare to the pay rolls of new york state and the pay rolls of new york city? >> i think, especially the state, for a number of years now, it's followed very closely with the national numbers. i think new york state has a very diverse economy, like the u.s. economy. so the patterns are very similar. >> and what have been the largest declines in new york state? >> in terms of what industries? state? >> in terms of? >> job loss. >> i'm afraid should i have that, but i don't have that in front of me. >> you'll get it to me later? >> yeah. >> and how has new york state

fared compared to the nation as a whole during recessions? >> again, lately it's been fairly close to the national numbers. last couple of recessions have been sort of jobless recoveries where the delay in the labor market took -- created a problem when they wanted to recover. it's been pretty much the same for new york. >> and do recessions typically last longer at the state level? you can use the example of new york or any state. are recessions longer? >> it depends on the state. some states especially smaller states can look rather different than rational numbers over time. >> in fact, i would say during much of the 2000 there is a state or two that has probably been in recession for quite a while. >> what about new york? >> new york is not. new york is followed closely with the national numbers. >> could you give us insight on trade jobs? there's tremendous concern about

the outsourcing of jobs to other countries and other reports that say trade builds jobs in our country. are you tracking the connection between trade and the job loss or job gain in certain industries? do you have any reports on that? >> we don't and it turns out that's a rather difficult thing to do because at the factory level when something's produced, quite often that establishment doesn't know where it goes and in respect to imports, for example, as well, when a product hits the u.s. shores and customs we actually lose track of where it goes so we don't know how it impacts or how it's used inside the united states. it's very difficult to connect job growth and loss with trade specifically. there are studies that will do that. i know the department of commerce has done a couple of studies on that.

>> we would like to see those study, and i would like for you and your staff to look into how we can track that and how we can see whether jobs grow or loss. >> i am told that one of my financial industries just built a financial services item in another country and yet they were saying it is creating over 500 jobs in the u.s. due to the support services and the data collection. the fact that we are -- the world is flat and we are in a world of global economy, i believe we have to move to the 21st century and start tracking how those trade jobs are growing, are being lost and specifically you can track if a plant closes you lose those jobs. that's very clear, and i would think that with the changing economy you would look in this

new direction. do you think you'll be able to do that? >> i'll take a look and see what we can do. i think it doesn't do enough to collect data related to trade to get the issues like offshoring and that sort of thing. i'll take and look and see what we've got. it's going to be -- it would be difficult. >> often temporary help is often a leading indicator of abemployer's willingness to hire and how many jobs have been lost in the temporary health industry since the recession began and do you see any indications that job losses in temporary help industry are slowing and when was the last time that the temporary help industry saw this level of job losses? >> so this recession so far temporary health services has lost 844,000 jobs. so it's pretty significant. there has been substantial

improvement in the job this last month and temporary services lost 10,000 jobs compared to 844,000 since the recession began. we've never seen job loss like this before, but the temporary help industry's changed quite a bit. it is now something on the order of nearly 2.5 million people are in temporary help now and in 2000 it was at the peak. we dropped from that, but as little as say 1990 it was a 1 million person industry. it's changed a lot. that's a long way to say we've never seen a drop like this before and temporary help has never been as big. >> with the financial indicators indicating we're heading in the right direction, do you think we have seen the worst in this -- whatever you want to call it, recession, depression or compression. i think i'd call it the great compression with the job losses

and shrinking of leverage. >> certainly the trend is encouraging. i don't want to sort of predict because it's like anything else, things can change going forward, but the trend right now is encouraging. >> listen with positive news. the trend is encouraging. thank you for your testimony and your hard work. this meeting is adjourned. >> now president obama on the july unemployment numbers which show a decrease for the first time since about april of last

year. this is about 5:00. >> good afternoon. i'd like to say a few words about the state of our economy and what we are doing to put americans back to work and build a new foundation for growth. last month, we received a report on the america's growth national product. we have shown a marked improvement. we have seen signs that the worst may be behind us. we have lost 247,000 jobs in july. that was 200,000 fewer lost than in june. today, we are pointed in the right direction. we are losing jobs at less than

half the rate we were when i took office. we pulled the financial system back. rising market and soaring values. we have enabled families to reduce payments on their mortgages, making homes more affordable. we helped provide credit markets. we have rescued our economy, and have begun to build a new foundation for wealth. we did so without any earmarks and pork barrel spending in washington. there's a lot of information about the recovery act. let me repeat what it is and what it is not.

one-third of the money is for tax relief going directly to families with small businesses. for americans struggling to pay rising bills. we have put a promise to put a into 9f working families. that began showing up in paychecks about four months ago.

>> the last third is dedicated to the investments putting people back to work today to create a strorng economy tomorrow. part of that is the newest investment since icen hower built-in fa structure. as we begin to put an end to this recession, we have to consider what comes next. we can't afford to return to an economy where we depend on out

sourced resources. this won't create sustainable growth. that's why we've put an end to the status quo that got us into this crisis. we cannot turn back to the failed policies of the past. now is the time to build new foundations. this foundation has to be supported by several pillars to our economy. america is the most highly educated work force in the world. providing more security for folks who have insurance and options for those who don't. we need to provide incentives for those who will create new, clean resources. that is where the jobs of the

future are. that's a race that america must win. we have a lot further to go. we will not have a true recovery as long as we are losing jobs. we won't rest until every american who is looking for work can find a job. i have no doubt we can make these changes. &/] we have a steep mountain decline. i have faced the american people in their capacity for hard work and their courage to face adversity. we have seen already that strength of character over the course of this recession. across the country, people have percent veered.

everywhere i go, i see americas pulling themselves up. i am convinced we can see a light at the anticipated of the tunnel, now we can move forward with promise and conviction to reach a new day. thank you very much. >> today on washington journal, a look at numbers with rex nutting. also a look at legislation that would give federal government control over student loans. later a discussion about the

resignation of senator mel martinez. washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern. the phenomenon of face book on the success and how it toer two best friends apart. >> these brief remarks are courtesy of wofl tv.

>> first, i had the privilege of being the mayor of orange county. and now i serve as a united states senator. i have enjoyed serving the people and their interests. when i began my term as senator, i promised not to simply warm a seat. this has meant pressing for help for assistance for families struggling to keep their homes. on that note, i'm especially grateful to the men and woman and their families who i might have had the distinct honor of representing in washington. we have had also a platform to speak against the oppression of the cuban regime and my hope for a better future for the people

of cuba. i will always be grateful for the people of florida for the honor of representing them in the united states senate. my priorities have always been my faith, my family and my public position. at this time, it's time to return to florida and my family. i will announce my decision to step down from public office dependent on my successor. i want to thank the republican leader mitch mcolal for his help

and friend himship. i would like to thank my family for their support. i look forward to recommending the memories and the opportunity to move on and have a better opportunity for closer family time. i look forward to being an active and constructive voice to the state of florida and i look forward to being an active part of being a resurging republican party. [inaudible] >> no better way so say it.

[inaudible] >> i called the governor to let him know. we have talked about this potential. i think he's prepared to conduct a good process. i leave that in his hands. again, i'm going leave all those questions to the governor. thank the good lord, knock on wood. i'm in good health. [inaudible] >> the next phase of my life is going to be in the private sector. however, i do hope5lc to have a voice to speak on issues i think are important. that's as far as it goes. i have no further plans other than it will be in private life.

[speaking spanish] >> there my be a 60 day gap

where you may see me feeding the piggons or something as per kitty's request. >> this is c-span. public affairs programming. coming up, we'll take your questions and phone calls on washington journal. >> this morning, a look at the latest unemployment number was rex nutting with market watch. then we'll talk about jendayi phraser about hillary