number of job openings. like i said, we have not had a knot up -- not a lot of layoffs. i am curious because job openings are at a record high in june, we will get the number from the any -- the end of july and we want to see if employers are posting jobs and i will be keeping an eye on the initial jobless benefits, and it is interesting because it would be the first -- last week where people are receiving benefits, so it would be interested to see if people are not applying preventive -- for benefits and leaving the unemployment rolls or will those numbers remain elevated. host: once again we are talking about the release of the most recent jobs report that showed a 5.2% unemployment rate and 200 35,000 jobs added, which was far fewer than many economists had expected for the month.

behind this august jobs report, we want to know what is your opinion, what is your view of the u.s. economy, are you pessimistic, optimistic or do you think things will bet get that are or worse. let us talk to renee from west chester, pennsylvania. are you pessimistic or optimistic? caller: optimistic. patience, it is going to be slow, i believe it will be a slow pace, but people are going to have to be patient. the reason, the pandemic is still on. there is not a vaccine for children under 12. when that happens. i believe -- when that happens, i believe people will go out and back to work. these programs are helpful but temporary. they are not permanent. anyone who has any sense knows that they are temporary, not permanent.

they should have extended unemployment whether they put extra money on it or no extra money, they should have extended unemployment a little bit longer at least until this vaccine, which i believe will be out sometime. host: do you think that the economy depends on us getting rid of covid-19 in -- and all of its variants? do you think it will get better if we cannot get rid of covid? caller: definitely. more people would go back to work without small children or family members that are very sick. i lost a few family members this year to covid. all they had in common was renal fairly or -- failure or transplant people, kidney transplant. some other ones were renal failure people on dialysis.

it has a lot to do with that. host: tyrone from illinois. are you pessimistic or optimistic about the economy? caller: pessimistic about the economy. i own a business in illinois and i love to be in your show. the thing i am seeing is such a backlog of containers across the united states right now to get goods and services to us. we are so dependent on china for our goods and services. there are hundreds of containers sitting there in our reports to get our goods to us, and if we could solve this, if our government would step in, because right now it used to be $3500 to bring in containers to the united states, around 21,000 and that is causing a lot of inflate -- inflation.

our government needs to do something about this to help us out. host: you said you own a business, and how is employment for you? are you finding workers or are you having a tough time getting people to come to work? caller: with the employment thing going on, we are having a tough time getting qualified people to do the jobs that we need. but the other token is that a lot of businesses are not hiring a lot of people because they cannot get goods and services from the ports yet, the merchandise for their fall and christmas to plot out. if we could solve this, our economy would grow dramatically. you are talking about hundreds of ships with containers waiting to be unloaded and brought to the stores. host: what is blocking the containers with these goods from making it into stores? caller: its a backlog.

it happens about every five years. we import so much more from china that we export, that we have a backlog of containers sitting in ports in california, florida, or major ports, so we have them sitting there and nobody wants to take them back because there is no paying or anything in them. we are importing 80% and exporting 20%. host: linda from dallas, texas. are you pessimistic or optimistic about the u.s. economy? caller: optimistic this morning because i have faith in joe biden that he will get this infrastructure and he is doing a great job that he got out of afghanistan and i want to say to those holding up the bill, i am not praising those gentlemen

because a lot of those signatures are old, they are old and their age, and my heart lies with the next generation. i am 71 years old. i am praying that god will make it better for the next generation. to the man in north carolina, the wealthy are only going to get more money and get more help through this infrastructure. host: joe from mulberry, florida. are you optimistic or pessimistic about the economy? caller: i would say a little bit of both. if we are going on the track, slow and steady. i believe that it will not come quick. i traveled to virginia and stayed up there for a while, i saw more health warning signs in virginia than i ever had,

everyplace that you stop where help-wanted signs. i think because of the unemployment will expire, that will encourage people to find a job. i can understand why if you get paid a lot of money to stay home you will stay home, that is common sense, but i believe people need an incentive to work. there is nothing wrong with unemployment. if you need it, you need it. if you need welfare, you need welfare, that is not a problem. you have people trying to take advantage of it, and i understand that too, that is human nature. host: let us see what social media followers are saying about their view of the u.s. economy. here is a tax that says " pessimistic, biden said the rich are not paying their fair share. no company is in the infrastructure plan, they know the american people will pay for it. smoke and mirrors body d -- by the dems." "cosco in massachusetts fully

stocked and full of shoppers, but all of the shelves and stores are empty, the free market seems to be rewarding the business models with loyal employees." another facebook post that says "wonder how much this has to do with employers requiring vaccinations?" another facebook post that says "the economy for the middle and lower class has been destroyed to serve corporate ceo's making eight figure bonuses, talking jobs to child labor in china." another facebook post that says, "biden is running this country into the ground." and one last saying "why would people get a job when they can stay and get paid for the -- by the government?" let us see if nick from pennsylvania is optimistic or pessimistic about the economy? good morning. caller: good morning everybody,

i am optimistic that we will go forward. and, 20 to 40% of the people -- one think i -- one thing i am concerned about is that people think we are socialist. we are not. social programs are not socialist. i know what production is, i am a senior. we are not socialists. god bless everybody, thank you so much. host: william from st. petersburg, florida.

william, are you pessimistic or optimistic about the current state of the economy? caller: good morning, i am cautiously optimistic. i believe we have the right president in the oval office and i think he is trying to do the right thing. i just wish that the democrats would be bold and do the things they need to do because they are in control and stop worrying about what else. but my caution is that is the rise of hatred and vehement meanness coming from the right and nobody is trying to stop. i am cautious for what will happen and it will not get worse than it already is. host: joe from covington, georgia. are you pessimistic or optimistic? caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call.

i am extremely pessimistic about the economy. just this past week a story came out about three hedge fund managers getting paid a -- getting paid $7 billion settlement with the irs, nobody went to jail, they just totally paid the money and that was it, $7 billion settlement with the irs. this has been going on for years. they are not the only people. we have heard stories already about the billionaires who are not paying any income taxes, all they are doing is printing more money, backed by nothing to raise the prices of everything in court. this is how we are being taxed to death. only the poor pay taxes that is

why are prices are so much higher than anywhere else in the world, because we are paying all of the money that is taken by these people who have learned how to game the system and stealing billions of dollars while they have us over here fighting with each other over crumbs. host: "the wall street journal" in its story about the august jobs report has experts that say that things might be getting better as schools reopen for the fall school season, and i will read a couple of paragraphs. "economists expect that school re-openings august and september would pull mothers back into the labor force as childcare responsibilities. there will still be hurdles as the pandemic continues. employment at child day care

services fell from a month earlier, offering one indication of continued disruption. a sign of a slowing recovery includes a decline in the number of diners and restaurants which fell 9% in the week ending september 2 when compared with the same week in 2019 according to opentable the number of people eating out has slowed from earlier this summer. the number of employees logging on -- logging hours fell from july according to home base, a scheduling software companies with mainly smaller business clients. a steady decline in employment throughout the month was driven by industries that saw the sharpest job growth in recent months amidst debris -- state reopening. the number of hospitality workers working dropped 30% while those employed in entertainment fell 20% according to home base." so we are seeing both up and

down when it comes to the august jobs report. coming up, they are to talk to medal of honor recipient staff sergeant leroy petrie about -- petri about mental health. and then later, national geographic environmental writer sarah gibbons will examine the nexus between host: as we get rr next guest we want to show you a portion of sergeant petry's medal of honor ceremony as we get ready to talk to him about the issues of veteran's mental health. here's the ceremony. [video clip] >> the president of the united states of america authorized by an act of congress march 3, 1863