genes be tested and owned? george contrares tests that question in his book, discussing a supreme court case relating to this. >> i did not think it had a huge chance of success when it was brought, but as it rolled on year after year through different appeals and machinations, it became clear that there was something important going on here and, by the time i got to the supreme court, i knew that this was going to be a very important landmark case, and one that i definitely wanted to tell the story of. >> george contreras, author of the genome defense, on c-span's human -- c-span's q and a.

watch on our c-span now after. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to "washington journal." host: wage increases luring workers into joining the great resignation. the americans leaving lower paying jobs for better wages. our question -- what is your job situation? if you have been part of the great resignation, we want to hear from you. you at (202) 748-8000. if you are looking for a new job right now, we want to know what the market is out there.

if you are looking for a new job, your number is (202) 748-8001. if you are unemployed right now and you are looking for a job, we want to know what you are seeing. your number is (202) 748-8002. if you are not looking for a job, if you are retired, or you decided to drop out of the job market, your number is going to be (202) 748-8003. you can always text us your answer and (202) 748-8003 and we are always reading on social media on facebook, twitter, and you can follow us on instagram. once again, what we want to talk to you about this morning is your current job situation. where do you sit in the job market? have you been looking for a new job? are you satisfied with the job

you have right now? are you unemployed? call and let us know what the job market looks like for you. all of this as we receive new jobs numbers on friday on what the american economy is doing right now and we will bring you the story from "the washington post." the unemployment rate is at 3.9% and 199,000 jobs were added to the american economy, lower than what economists expected. "the washington post" explains it in their story this morning. the u.s. economy sent more confusing singles in -- signals in december adding just 199,000 while pushing the unemployed it right down to a new pandemic low. according to the labor department monthly jobs report. it was the second month where job month -- job growth came in well below expectations. economists had forecast more than 400,000 jobs added in the month while the unemployment

rate sank from 4.2% in november to 3.9%. that means unemployment is nearing what was a 50 year low of 3.5% achieved in february 2020. the october and november initial reports with 546,000 and 210,000 jobs added respectively were revised upward. in interviews, many economists said they felt the report was stronger than the topline jobs figure. but the numerous economic forces unleashed by the pandemic in 2020 including inflation, labor shortage, and supply chain woes continued to weigh on the labor market and make it hard to predict what will happen next. we want to know from you what your job situation is. before we talk to you, we want to get an expert to tell us what is going on with these economic numbers so we will bring on heat

her long, an economics columnist with "the washington post" to expand what these numbers mean. good morning. caller: -- guest: good morning. host: we saw prior to the pandemic the unemployment rate was 3.9 present and the unemployed around 5.7 million. what do the latest numbers tell us about the job market right now? guest: everyone is surprised at how strong the overall picture is in the labor market. remember back to the great recession, that horrible period in 2008 and 2009, it took us until 2018, almost a decade to get to a figure like 3.9 percent unemployment. in a year and a half, certainly it is a result of all of that stimulus money that the government put out to try to ease small businesses and aid

families to keep people afloat and in a good position to get back. there is some hesitation and concern why we are only 199,000 jobs added in december. that was about half of what was forecast and hope for. i will say two things. number one is that hiring was particularly weak in retail and healthcare. healthcare is really struggling with burnout right now. very few government jobs added and pretty weak on things like hotels. they only added a couple thousand whereas we were seeing tens of thousands added earlier in the year. the other thing to keep in mind is that almost every month we have seen in 2021 big revisions up in the numbers when the data comes out the following month. when we saw that jobs report yesterday, there was a big bounce up in the november and the october numbers. a lot of people look at that 199

number and it is definitely low, but it would not surprise me to see that raised the something that close to 300,000 when all is said and done. host: does that mean that we should look at the current numbers with a skeptical eye? do we know they will be adjusted up or is -- are we just assuming this? guest: we do not know for sure. what we saw in the jobs report is there are two surveys that make up the jobs report. one where the government goes out and they survey households and they ask individual families and people are you employed, full-time or part-time, what is your wages. the other survey is called the payroll survey and that is where they ask businesses have you added more employees, how many employees did you add. usually the payroll survey where they are talking to businesses

is considered the one that is a better gauge. that is the one that has been telling us some funky numbers in recent months and that is where that 199,000 came from. the household survey where they ask families how is it going, that showed almost 650,000 people getting jobs in december. there is a big disparity between what those two surveys are telling us. generally speaking, the figures keep getting revised up closer to the household survey. that is why i think economists and the stock market did not panic on friday and that is why economists think this will be revised up a little bit. host: there were jobs added to the american economy. what sectors were those jobs added to? guest: great question. i have the run down here. once again we saw a lot of hospitality jobs added, particularly in restaurants.

about 42,000 jobs added in the restaurant and bar sector. that is weaker than what we saw in the summer. business services added about 33,000. manufacturing continues to do a good rebound, adding 26,000. construction is a little weaker in the winter, but we had some warm weather on the east coast lately until the snow hit. they added 22,000. the warehouse and transport sector, 18,000. we continue to see some broad-based hiring. the economy did add back 6.4 million jobs for all of 2021. that was the best year ever on record since we started keeping records on this in 1939. overall, the year was very strong. it did get weaker in november and december. some of that could be because it gets harder at a certain point to add back more jobs than it is initially when industries were

trying to hire anyone they could to get going again in this recovery. host: can we tell how omicron is affecting the job market? guest: that is a great question. when i first saw that 199,000 number i thought, was this a covid impact. there is very little sign of that. some of the strongest hiring in december was restaurants and bars. the surveys i mentioned where they go out and they ask businesses and households how they are doing with the job situation, those occurred around december 12 so that was really before we see that big surge in the omicron over the holidays at the end of the month. a lot of this data is coming from much earlier when we did not see tons of people absent from work. finally, they have also been asking during the pandemic, the labor department added an extra survey where they were asking

people are you having to stay home from work? is your business closed because of the pandemic? those responses actually went down in december compared to november. there is not a lot of sign that omicron was a big factor in december. it will probably be a big factor in january. host: the bureau of labor statistics also reports that over the past 12 months average hourly earnings have increased by 4.7%. put that in perspective for us? what does that mean? guest: that is a really big number than what we have seen historically. i have written tons of stories about how wages, we could barely get it about 3%. now we have 4.7% and that is the average across all industries. the biggest gains have been happening for the lowest wage workers, the workers earning under $17 an hour have seen even higher gains.

the hospitality sector, it is close to 13% gains in the past year. they are coming from a lower base, but that is really a good sign. i will point out that two things are important. 4.7% wage gain in the past year, but inflation has been running at 6.8% so the average pay is not keeping up with inflation. the encouraging sign is if you just look at the pay gains in the last three months, it is running at about 6%. more on par with inflation, it seems like workers would strike. you mentioned workers quitting. people are demanding higher pay. they know what is going on and they want their employer to renumeration them -- remunerate them accordingly. that is putting pressure on employers to raise wages rapidly and we continue to see that. host: heather, i'm going to put you on the spot.

tell us your expectations for the economy in 2022 and we will come back next january and see how you did. guest: this is always a tough one. i would say it is one of these situations where it is going to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. omicron is disruptive the economy, flights, football games, the entertainment sector, the travel sector. we are getting to a point where people are starting to live with this virus, get vaccinated, get tested, figure this out and move beyond it. i am hopeful that by the summer, a lot of these supply-chain glitches will be in a better place and more under control and that overall we can see some real bounce back for restaurants, the travel sector. i am pretty optimistic that the second half of the year could finally be a lot more normal for the economy and hopefully for

our day-to-day lives. host: we will keep this on tape and come back to you next year. we would like to thank heather long, economic columnist for "the washington post" for walking us through the jobs numbers. thank you so much. guest: thanks a lot. host: we want to know what your job situation is. what does it look like out there for you? are you unemployed? do you have a job and you are looking for a job? are you not looking for a job? did you drop out of the job market? let's see what america is saying this morning. let's start with sue calling from michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. age 52 so retired at this point and with no intention whatsoever of going back into the market because conditions do not indicate freedom for people working anymore.

conditions are so fascist as proclaimed by both parties because nobody is objecting but the supreme court in their argument noted that the conditions of required vaccination for american citizens is not being represented by the parties that are fighting the mandate. shame on the federal government. this country is unrecognizable at this point. i think both parties are really at fault here. talking about data, nobody believes the data anymore. this is very unfortunate. we are a trusting people, we are a good people. this is so oppressive for the american people these days. nobody wants to be hooked up to some corporation that is going to dictate all of the federal government's requirements. nothing has made any sense. host: how long have you been out

of the job market? when did you retire? you jumped off. let's talk to brenda who is calling from antioch, california. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: one of the problems i am having is that i have a pretty decent job now with good benefits and everything. when i go out and i look and there are a lot of jobs out there, but most of them are not permanent jobs. most of them have no benefits. in many ways, i am stuck because i cannot find anything comparable out there for me. host: are you looking for new jobs in the same industry or any job that is available that will get you the benefits and the wages you need? caller: i am looking for jobs

primarily in my industry because i am in healthcare. but the jobs that are out there, most of them are not permanent jobs. they are all temporary or in san francisco, what they called exempt, which means you do not get benefits. i am still looking, but i have not been able to find anything out there. there are a lot of jobs out there, but they are not high-paying well benefited jobs. host: that is when i was about to ask because one area where you would think there would be a lot of jobs right now is healthcare. you are saying the jobs are the air, but they are not the jobs that pay what you need. caller: right. what has been happening here because i work for the city of san francisco is that all of the jobs that they have been hiring our temporary jobs -- are temporary jobs. temporary-exempt. even though you are working for the city, you are a contract.

that means they can let you go at any moment so there is no job security either. host: let's go to diana who is calling from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i have to agree. one of the main problems you have is not that people are not looking, but they are being taken out of the workforce because these shots are being mandated. it is amazing to me that the woman you had on earlier from "the washington post" mentioned all of the factors that are involved in people being unemployed and what has led to the numbers, but not once did she mention these mandates that are happening in new york and california and several places like san francisco.

even if a person is qualified and even if they are willing to go in and accept the wages and accept the fact that they are not any benefits, which is insane at this point, especially with everything going on. if you tell them that they have to have some chemical shot into their body and they do not want it, how are they going to be able to work? i know five people who are fully qualified experienced people with degrees that have been put out of work. it is just amazing to me how the corporate media does not cover this. they are not even discussing unless they are demonizing these people. they are not discussing how those numbers factor into what is going on in terms of unemployment. host: you say you are not looking for a new job, but you do have a job right now? caller: no.

i work for myself. i will not suggest -- subject myself to that tyranny. i think it is not fair for anyone to dictate to you that you have to alter your body permanently just to be a part of a company structure for a few hours a day. host: let me make sure i understand. you are saying you are self-employed. do you have any employees? caller: do i have employees? no. host: you work by yourself for yourself? caller: yeah. host: what industry are you in? caller: consulting and entertainment. host: let's go to sandy calling from kent, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. these numbers, i have to disagree with the numbers

because in my area here, you see signs everywhere. i saw one guy on tv. he was kind of funny. he said i will hire anyone who is breathing. another guy could not find employees in hospitality. he got a robot. can you imagine? a robot bringing your food to your table because he could not find employees. even wendy's had a sign, "we only have two people. please be patient." the food quality is not there. if they do hire somebody, they do not know how to cook. it is just amazing those

numbers. the unemployment, the numbers are down. you just cannot find people. host: do you think the situation is that employers cannot find workers or employers cannot find workers to take the lope that the employer's -- the low pay employers are offering? caller: probably both. i do not know for sure. there are higher wages for mcdonald's. work today, get paid tomorrow at burger king. you can work for one day and you do not have to wait a week or two to get paid. you get paid the next day and they still cannot get people. maybe you are right. they probably did not get much benefits either. the variant, the virus is very high here in kent.

very very high in the hospitals. the national guard called out to help in the hospitals. it is bad. still right here in our area. host: yesterday, president biden came out to discuss the december job numbers and his administration's economic policy. here's what president biden had to say. [video clip] pres. biden: today's national unemployment rate fell below 4% to 3.9%, the sharpest one year drop in unemployment in united states history and the first time the unemployment rate has been under 4% in the first year of a presently short-term in 50 years. 3.9% unemployment rate. years faster than the experts said would be able to do it and we have added 6.4 million new jobs since january of last year. in one year.

that is the most jobs in any calendar year by any president in history. how? how did that happen? the american rescue plan. the economy off its back and moving again -- the american rescue plan got the economy off its back and moving again. back to work even in the face of wave after wave of covid. we got schools open. we got booster shots. we brought down the poverty rate and went from 20 million people on unemployment one year ago to under 2 million people on unemployment today. america is back to work and there are more historical accomplishments. the increase in america's labor force was the fastest this year as any year since 1996. and workers ages 25 to 54 are

increasing in labor force participation, the biggest in 43 years. record job creation, record unemployment declines, record increases in people in the labor force. i would argue the biden economic plan is working and it is getting america back to work, back on his feet -- back on its feet. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about their current job situation. here is one tweet that says " employed but student loans swallow up most of my paycheck." here is a post from facebook that says, "i live in a red state so my job situation is good." another says, "self-employed musician currently retired. will un-retire once the pandemic is over." another facebook post says, "i

live in a red state. i am self-employed. my job is good. the biden administration has made it harder to secure material and so much more expensive." another post says, "great. our company never slowed down much during the pandemic. the wages are not following inflation." one last post on facebook that says, "i quit my full-time job in healthcare to do 13 week travel assignments at four times the pay for the same work." we want to know what your current job situation is. what is it looking like for you out there in the job market? before we get back to our phone calls, i want to bring a little bit from a story on cnbc.com that talks about the unemployment rate and how it is looking for other people in the job market. the unemployment rate was a fresh pandemic era low amid the 50 year low of 3.5% in february

2020. that decline came even though the labor force participation rate was unchanged at 61.9% amid an ongoing labor shortage in the u.s.. a more encompassing measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons slid to 7.3%, down 0.4 percentage points. although the overall jobless rate fell, unemployment for blacks rising to 7.1% from 6.5%. the rate for white women 20 years and older fell sharply to 3.1% from 3.7%. that is from cnbc.com and their story about the hiring faltering in december as payrolls rose

only 199,000. we want to know what your current job situation is. let's go to louis who was calling from washington -- who is calling from washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i collect food benefits i am a college student. it is a real life story that i have had where even money does not come to me all the time, but some benefits for a very long time. it is a real life story. host: let's go to alex calling from south carolina. good morning. caller: how are you doing? i just want to address the fact

that i am looking to change jobs. i am retired military. i work in the newspaper industry. and the skills are changing so much in the newspaper industry. the newspaper industry is getting smaller. i look at the things that i value on the job as my natural evolution of working for 30 years in the military and my job at the newspaper and what i want. i am looking for a new job. what i am trying to articulate is my son is 22 years old. he was a senior in college and when covid started, we sat down and talked and i came to the realization that these young people are really realigning what they look for jobs -- for

in jobs. job security, pension, and all that. he was saying, job security, just go out and find another job. people like me, older, we do not change jobs. school is not an option right now because of the stuff on campus. my son tends to go out and gets a job and moves forward. it is just the realization of the thinking of generations between my son and myself how we change jobs. i do not think like him and he does not think like me and i did not think a lot of that is being articulated in these numbers. host: let's go to stephen

calling from saks worth, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? first of all, i watch bloomberg news a lot. in november, there were 4.2 million people that draft out of the workforce -- dropped out of the workforce. 4.2 million people that dropped out in november. that is a big number between 18 and 54-year-olds. you take that and you take this mandate shot and people are upset about this. it is like president biden wants to be a dictator. host: do you think these people are leaving the jobs because of the mandate or are they leaving the jobs because of the wages and benefits? caller: the mandate.

every employer wants to make sure everybody is vaccinated to this mandate. you have to show your shot. you have to remember all the firemen, nurses in new york city and paramedics that dropped out of the workforce and police officers. it is sad. it truly is sad. about this whole coronavirus and everything else. but our lives have been changed. i am fully vaccinated. i have to say that. i believe what my doctor tells me. the mandate, a lot of these people, i live in a completely

red district and they are paying thousand dollar bonuses, up to $3000 bonuses to get people in and there has to be 500 to 600 job openings. it is really tough. host: since the caller brought it up, there is a story in "the washington post" that talks about the industries that people are resigning from. let's go to that story from "the washington post" to see exactly where we see the most resignations. "the great resignation continued into october with 4.2 million americans quitting their jobs that month according to new data from the bureau of labor statistics. hospitality and food, retail and arts, and entertainment and recreation continue to see high rates of workers quitting. although the numbers were down from summer peaks. workers continue to leave their jobs at record rates in healthcare, social assistance

and nondurable goods manufacturing. demand for new hires remains high in those industries as job openings continue to increase. i'm in some industries, hiring can barely keep up with separation, a broader measure that includes retirement, layoffs, and resignations. the pandemic has spurred not only a record number of resignations, but also has caused a wave of early retirement that has increased separations across the labor market." that is from "the washington post" this morning where we see the industries with the highest rate of workers quitting include hospitality and food, and attainment and arts, and recreation. let's hear from christopher calling from new york. caller: good morning. i have been fully employed for

the last seven years. i have a union job. i do not know anybody who is unemployed. i do not know anybody who is struggling. the thing about this on employment is that lead the people. people would rather not work and get all of these funds instead of going out there and working. i am not the richest person in the world but i am not struggling. i have food on the table all the time. i pay my bills. i pay my rent. i do not know. i just do not understand what is going on with this country. i know we are going through a crisis right now. covid. i did not know anybody that has died of covid. i did not know if that is something they are making up. i do not personally know anybody neither do the people that i know know anybody with covid. i do not know if it is just here

and everybody else everywhere else is struggling. i want the country to do good. i just wanted to say that. i love the show. i really like it. host: let's go to poly coming -- polly calling from st. petersburg, florida. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i have been recovering from being cyber hacked for over a year now and i cannot access any jobs because my internet does not ever reliably work. they have ruined my devices with viruses so i have no computers to use to look for a job. at some point, i will end up on the public toll because i cannot support myself because i cannot get a job because i cannot access a job because i have been hacked. fbi does nothing about it. it is not the first time they did not do anything.

i am not alone i'm sure in the suffering from the cybersecurity issue and it is going to render me either a homeless person that nobody wants to see or it is going to end up with me on some sort of public assistance because i cannot access anything with these cyber attackers. host: i feel sorry that you are going through what you're going through with the cyber hacking. have you tried using computers at public libraries or somewhere to access the internet? caller: yes. once i access my accounts, these people are already in and they immediately change my password. host: have you reported this to the local police and authorities? caller: yes. and every representative in my state. rick scott set up the employment system so people cannot access it.

matt gaetz was not happy with me calling him a snowflake on twitter. host: let's go to allen calling from michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you very much for taking my call. i am a retired person. i took a job working part-time because inflation is so high. what i was collecting on retirement was not going to be enough to cover my expenses. here i am looking at being unemployed again only because of the fact i will not get v axxed. like their previous caller said, i do not know people who have have covid. i know people who have covid but i did not know people who have died from it. i did not notice any constitutional comments made in the supreme court. nobody said it is constitutional to have people get vaxxed/

. it is my body, my choice. host: what industry are you looking for a job in? caller: in the automotive field. host: construction or sales? caller: sales. host: you are saying that there are no jobs in your industry or are you saying there are no jobs in your industry that will not let you work unvaxxed? caller: yes unless it is less than 100 employees, which is what the supreme court ruling will determine in a few days here. host: let's go to douglas who is calling from washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that president biden was saying how great everything he has done is. i just want to say that when the pandemic started and they shut down everybody and now we have

vaccines and therapeutics and stuff and everybody is going back to work plus people are getting fired for not getting the vaccine. he acts like he created all of them jobs when all that is is people are going back to work from being kicked out of their jobs for a year or whatever. what every he is calling this economic thing is not from him. in our town vaccinated but -- host: if i'm hearing you correctly, you are saying there are a bunch of jobs in your town that do not require you to be vaccinated, yet there are still people not taking those jobs? caller: absolutely. there are so many jobs, it is

amazing that people will not go to work. i cannot -- i do not get it either. when i did work, i always had a second job. i did it because i made extra money. there are so many jobs here, it is unreal. host: at least in your area, it is not any vaccine mandate that is keeping people unemployed? caller: nope, not at all. i have a son. i do not know why, but he does not seem like he needs a job. host: which brings me to my next question. why do you think people are not taking the jobs available? caller: i cannot answer that. i think it is because a lot of the jobs here, it is too hard work. they do not want to do it because it is hard work in the temper industry and they do not want to do it. that is just the bottom line.

it is hard for the companies here to get younger kids and workers to take the jobs because they do not want to work hard. it is not the same. host: what do you think about the wages and salaries for those jobs? are those jobs paying enough for what they ask employers to do? caller: yes, it is way up. it is amazing compared to when i was working how much it has went up. it needed to go up when i was working. it has went up a lot. it is still hard with the price of housing and stuff. it is harder for kids to have a job to even save up to get a house anymore. but there are jobs that are paying really good here. people do not want to do them. it is too hard work. host: you heard douglas in washington. jobs are available for people. let's go to james calling from clearwater, florida. good morning. caller: good morning.

yes, i am a 78-year-old man, i am retired. i am living on social security. i get $1500 a month and my rent is $1400 a month. i got in trouble. i went to prison 10 years ago. i got out and rent was $700 a month then. now it is 1400 to 1600. $1800 in some places. i'm having a hard time paying bills. i have a car that is 20 years old. i cannot hardly afford to put gas in it. my life is in real shambles. when it comes to unemployment, i think if people want to work, some of the jobs, but if you can

only make enough to pay your rent, it is not like it used to be where you could pay the rent and live. insurance, food, like everybody else, we have to have these things. but it is very tough to do that. host: let's talk to marsha calling from portland, oregon. good morning. caller: hello, jesse. am i muted? host: we can hear you, marsha. go ahead. caller: good. happy, jesse. thanks for taking my call. i am a black female calling from portland, oregon, blue state. i have a doctorate degree. i have a double masters degree. i am a certified master. i am certified in my sq well. i know html, javascript.

i have been looking for a job for years before covid. i am not willing to take the vaccine because i am a data scientist and i have a lot of clinical experience and research and it takes about 10 to 15 years to develop a vaccine. i do not know what they are giving people. they are doing all of these boosters and stuff. that is what they call refinement because they need to do more trials. but i am really discouraged. you just go into a major depression. i have applied for so many jobs. i have written cover lett ers that are going into detail. i have applied for internships and the people take a look at

you and they see you are over 30, 35. i have no idea what to do. host: you say you have been looking for years for a job in your particular industry. caller: yes. i have been certified as a certified scrum master since 2019. host: tell us what that is. some people might not know what that is. caller: sorry. it is a project manager for i.t. projects. host: and you have been looking for a job in that industry as that position for years? caller: yes, for about three going on four years. i cannot get any opportunities. i cannot get any internships. i do not know what is going on. i have applied for diversity because i have lived and traveled all over the world. i speak french.

i speak italian. i can make my way through in spanish. and nothing. host: that was going to be my next question. have you looked for jobs in other areas outside of portland? perhaps those jobs do not exist where you live. caller: exactly. i used to live in europe and when i lived in europe, i was always working. always working. i am trying to find a remote job. outside of oregon. because i am completely discouraged, there are no jobs here. host: let's go to virginia who is calling from north platte, nebraska. good morning. caller: hello? host: good morning. caller: hi. i am on ssi so i am unemployed.

i have back problems. i was going to say about the hospitality world, and this is probably pre-covid. the hospitality world, you do not get paid a lot. you want to put a smile on somebody's face. but when people can be so mean and crass, it kind of takes the fun away and not very much money. try to be a little bit kinder. thank you. host: let's dale who is calling from illinois. pronounce the name of your town. did i get anywhere close? caller: skokie. anyway, i am the flipside. i work in i.t. and i just returned late 70. i am working now but i am

looking for a new job because i am not really comfortable with the company i have been working with for almost a year. i am getting lots of contacts in i.t. just not so many interviews. i am looking, but i am employed. i have a five-year full-time employee contact and at my age, they force you to take social security when you turn 70 so i am also drawing social security. i am seeing a lot of jobs. every monday, i have over 100 emails. over the weekend when i do not log on. there are jobs out there in i.t. host: yesterday, president biden came out to discuss the release of new data on worker wages. here is what president biden had to say. [video clip] pres. biden: today's report also

tells us that record wage gains especially for workers in some of america's toughest jobs, women and men who work on the front line jobs in restaurants, hotels, travel, tourism, desk clerks, line cooks, waitstaff, bellman, they all saw their wages at historic highs, the highest in history. their pay went up almost 16% this year, far ahead of inflation, which is still a concern. overall, wage gains for workers who are not supervisors went up more in 2021 than any other year in four decades. there has been a lot of coverage about people quitting their jobs. today's report tells you why. americans are moving up to better jobs with better pay, better benefits. that is why they are quitting their jobs. this is not about workers walking away and refusing to

work. it is about workers able to take a step up to provide for themselves and their families. this is the kind of recovery i promised and hope for for the american people. the biggest benefits go to the people who work the hardest and are more often left behind. the people who have been ignored before. the people who just won a decent chance to build a decent life for their family, if given a clear shot. for them, wages are up, job opportunities are up, layoffs are down to the lowest levels in decades, and there are more chances than ever to get ahead. no wonder one leading economic -- analyst described what we have accomplished in 2021 as the strongest first year economic track record of any president in the last 50 years. [end video clip] host: let's see what social media followers are saying about their current job situation.

here is one tweet that says, "hospital worker. it is absolutely horrible." another tweet says, "i saw a healthy looking young woman with a sign saying she had been laid off, please help. across the street was a mcdonald's with a now hiring signs." another tweet says, "why are they not taking jobs available? hard work deserves good money, just like gas prices and hurricanes, wages and a pandemic increase. why is that so hard for conservatives to figure out?" another tweet says, "many took early retirement or an early covid break." one last tweet that says, "retired, not looking. lots of jobs available at low wages and no benefits. too many jobs put workers in contact with a hostile unvaccinated public and are not worth the wages paid."

we want to know what your job situation is but before we go back to our phones, i want to read a response from house minority leader kevin mccarthy to the current job numbers. this is what kevin mccarthy had to say, "our economy should be soaring right now but the policy of this administration will continue to stifle growth and hold back american businesses and workers. president biden has been in office for nearly a year and our economy is still missing millions of pre-pandemic jobs. consumers are facing inflationary pressure not felt in nearly 40 years and employers continue to struggle with a persistent labor shortage." that comes from house minority leader representative kevin mccarthy of california. we want to know what your job situation is. let's go to kathy calling from fremont, california. good morning. caller: good morning. i have always had two jobs.

one at the alameda county library and i work for fremont unified school district for 32 years. recently, i was terminated from that job and i do not know exactly why. i have been using jobs from the employment development department in california to look for new jobs. we also have the tri-city one stop which is a federal program. i have been told they can help me get a job, but i have not had any success yet and i was laid off november 4. the california education allows the school board members to do that at their pleasure. they did not tell me why. the reason i am calling is because the internet access that you have to get jobs is really poor. i tried for a whole week to get a job in another school

district, but they all use ed -join and it does not work very well and even the people at the employment development department said they could not get it to work. i get these jobs, maybe 25 per day, and you go into their site and it does not go in there and it gives you about 10 other jobs so it is really hard to use their system. but i am still looking and i have rented rooms in my house before too, but that did not go very well after a while. host: let's go to scott calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, scott. caller: yes, i am retired so i am really not looking for work right now, but i did want to comment that i find it interesting that previous caller was from california also. i wanted to comment on the fact that here in california we have the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

it just went down a bit this past month where it is now just under 7% for the first time. i find it ironic that in his speech, joe biden talks about the unemployment rate falling and one of the reasons he has the unemployment rate falling is because the red state are doing quite well relatively speaking versus the blue state. here in california, you have a situation where the nfl is looking to potentially move the super bowl out of california because things are too up in the air right now in terms of whether or not they will be able to do the super bowl with all of the requirements that they have. the state has increased their mask mandates or extended it to mid february and it is just a real problem. "the san francisco chronicle"

last month did an article and nowhere in the article did he mention the points i am making. they simply talked about the entertainment and the services sector as being down, the entertainment and tourism sectors as being down. nowhere in it did they get into the relatively high unemployment rate given the actions of the state in any respect. host: let's go to jackie calling from appleton, wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. i do have a job. i have had it for a few years. but i keep my eye open just because of the new wages and stuff available. my job is very flexible so that is why i stay for less pay. we are in wisconsin and i did not know if it seems like we are in a different part of the world.

our lives continue. we go out for friday fish fry in old-fashion. if you want a job, there is a job. the only reason you are not working is you do not want to. i have friends who made more on unemployment for a year than i made working at my job. they do not need to go back to work and they are not going to until the government backs off and actually makes them get a job. i used to have to, when i was laid off, apply for jobs and if you did not take a job that was accepted, you were done with unemployment. that is no longer a work requirement in a lot of areas. host: let's go to michael calling from hines burke, vermont. good morning. caller: happy weekend, everyone and happy new year. thanks for taking my call. i have been on quite the roller coaster. i worked my way through college three times and got a fantastic

education, been a national sales executive vice president. what they now call the great recession right around 2008, i turned 50, lost a great job, and i have been scrimping since then to raise my family in vermont. i just want everybody to know, there are jobs here. they are not vice president jobs, but there are i.t. jobs. there are people that would love to grow their company. everything that is going on with the infrastructure, i know right now that with what is going to happen with the infrastructure here, we do not have enough workers to spend that money for the roads and the airports and expanding the internet. there are jobs. as an example, i made it to retirement. i managed to continue to raise my family here. i'm going to work at a local restaurant where we are one third staffed.

i'm going in on 65 years old with a really positive attitude and trying to set an example for people that are much younger than me and are struggling. but i'm going to go in there with the best attitude i can and if you are out there looking for a job, you are going to find a lot of it is -- your attitude will determine your altitude. you might never have a fancy title again but it feels good just to open the door for a young woman strolling a baby into the restaurant. i have been like that my whole life so i think your attitude for how lucky some of us have been comes along with how you treat other people. host: we would like to thank all of our callers for calling in for our first segment. coming up next, peter hepburn of eviction lab will be here to discuss the increase in eviction filings after the end of the

year-long national eviction moratorium and also, new laws aimed at protecting tenants. later, we will have conservative political commentator michael knowles, the host of "the michael knowles show." he will be here to discuss his podcast and the news of the day. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪

>> next week, the senate will debate on sanctions on the pipeline and diplomatic relations. chuck schumer also intends on working on the voting rights bill which may include changing the filibuster rules. the house returns to take up benefit legislation. dr. anthony fauci, and other members of the covid response team appear before a senate committee to discuss the omicron variant. also tuesday, the senate banking committee holds a hearing for jerome powell, who president biden nominated to serve as the fed chair. the senate banking committee returned thursday a second federal reserve confirmation hearing, this one to be the vice chair and sandra thompson to be

director of the federal housing finance agency. we will have coverage of several supreme court oral arguments monday through wednesday, live beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.org and c-span now video app. head over to c-span.org for scheduling. or to stream video live on demand anytime. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with peter hepburn, a senior fellow at princeton university's eviction lab and professor of sociology and he is here to talk with us today about eviction filings and the covid 19 pandemic. good morning. guest: takes for having me on. host: tell us what the eviction la