at the carnegie endowment and the author of digital repression at saturday 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> the country added about 850,000 jobs last month. an still went slightly up. economists say the overall numbers are good because jobs gains in june were well above the previous three months. lawyers are offering hiring -- higher pays and signing bonuses. the country is still down 7 million jobs due to the pandemic. before the outbreak, jobless rate was 3.5%. >> we want to welcome heather long. steve: two things i want to get your reaction to the expectation is that we would add 700,000 jobs.

why? heather: people are getting vaccinated and feeling safe and content again. the economy is reopening. we are seeing a ton more job opportunities and we are finally seeing a lot more hiring? workers feeling like they can return to jobs. it is safe to return to jobs. that was a big part of what happened this month. 40% of the hiring in june. the bulk of it was happening in leisure and hospitality. restaurants, hotels, arts and entertainments, big surge education jobs. steve: slight uptick in the unemployment rate. can you explain? heather: the basic story here is that it did not go up a ton. the key take away is despite all of these job openings we are

seeing, there is still a flat labor force participation. that is a fancy way of saying we don't have a lot of jobseekers. people are still sitting on the sidelines. maybe i often hear about childcare issues. or i hear about people who want to take a chance and go in a different direction so they are not taking the first job available to them. they're thinking about starting a business are going in a different direction, may be going back to school. that is why we see that uptick in the unemployment rate. we are just not seeing a huge number of people searching for work again yet. steve: if you are unemployed this is the number to call. if you are currently working, call this number. i want to go to this chart that is available on your website. i know you have seen it. you can see this huge drop in

march and april of last year. really a nosedive of people being forced out of work when we had a record high of 152 million people working in february of last year. based on your reporting, we are back to 145.8 million. we are still 7-8,000,000 short of where we were during the early stages of when the pandemic hit. heather: number i keep in my head and look at first is we are about 70% recovered. the good news is that is a lot further along than most people thought we would be, certainly sitting of june of last year. things seemed dark and we were wondered if we were on the verge of a great depression. we managed to avoid that. there is still 6.8 million -- obviously, there have been population growth and that number could be a little higher

in terms of how many people we would like to get back. with this pick up in the hiring we saw in june, if we can keep this pace going around 800 -- 800,000 jobs or so a month, we would be to full strength early next year. again, that is not great. wish we could do it faster. it is better than most people thought only a few months ago. steve: there is a growing concern on how this will impact inflation. heather: it is the double edge sword. we are thrilled to see wages going up, especially in those lower paid sectors. there is a real hiring crunch for hotels and entertainment venues like baseball stadiums that are finally opening again. the average pay in that sector is up a dollar 30 compared to pre-pandemic. it is a big jump in the last few months alone.

it has been a 3.6% increase. we only see those numbers in a full year. we see that in a full three months. that why -- that is why i drove hiring in that sector. as you say, as those prices go up, to hire workers, oftentimes, businesses past some of that cost along. we have seen but late raise their menu prices among other restaurants. that is a real concern. at the moment, it seems like this could be a short-lived phenomenon. we will see what happens as we had later this year. do workers maintain the edge. at the moment, for the first time in decades, workers have the power. they are more in demand. steve: tell us what you think at (202) 748-8000, if you are out of work and looking (202) 748-8001 and for all others

(202) 748-8002. restaurants are still having a hard time filling those positions for waiters and waitresses and staff to provide the food services. why is that such a difficult challenge for restaurant operators? heather: some of it is basic math. that sector got hit the hardest. millions of job losses. those don't all come back overnight. we had a quick rebound of restaurants reopening to full capacity in the last few weeks and hiring takes time. the other two factors that are playing a big role here: number one is that people, i call the great reassessment of work in america. that pandemic year and a half changed so many of us. change what we want in life. it changed how we view ourselves, what we want our career and work life talents with family time. a lot of people are saying that

restaurant work as hard. i don't necessarily want to go back to it, particularly if i will only make 10-12 dollars an hour. that is why restaurants are raining -- raising pay to 15 or higher to attract people back. i'll be distally -- obviously, on a plum insurance, there is a debate and how much of a role that is playing if people want to go back to low-paying jobs is a great example is applebee's worker in pennsylvania named stephanie i was speaking to earlier this week. she is not going back to applebee's. she was laid off during the pandemic. she and her husband are part of this growing trend. they want to start a new business. they are trying that out. unemployment money has given them the cushion to try to live their dream. steve: home prices are going through the roof in many parts of the country with multiple bids on homes.

can you explain what it's happening in that sector? heather: supply and demand from your economics 101 classes in high school or college. there is simply almost record low supply of homes on the market. at the same time, we are seeing a huge surge of people buying, particularly millennials who hit their early to mid 30's and are starting families and want home. this trend of moving out of the new york and san francisco's of the world and into places like phoenix and salt lake, boise, denver, charlotte, dallas, and austin. there are not enough homes in those areas. the bidding wars are crazy. we have seen the headlines. steve: the headline today, the u.s. economy adding 850,000 jobs. the labor market showing a sign of strength. we always appreciate your time and insights.

inky for being with us on c-span. -- thank you for being with us on c-span. heather: thank you. >> a conversation with c-span's 2021 survey of presidential leadership giving insight on the new rankings. we will discuss who is up and who is down. where do most recent presidents rank and more. join in on the conversation. watch washington journal live, sunday, july 4. before the program, go to the website to see the full results of the 2021 survey. ♪ >>

>> house republicans on a subcommittee heard from scientist on the origins of covid-19. one of them served under president trump as the assistant secretary for health, leading the testing efforts. several lawmakers not on the special subcommittee also took part in this republican only event. >> good afternoon everybody. thank you for coming. i want to thank our witnesses. this is something we have wanted to do and that is to have a hearing on the origins of covid-19. with the select subcommittee, republicans as well as our ranking member on the oversight commte