guy behind it is rich cea. >> thank you very much. [closing bell rings] liz: markets are down three days in a row. president trump set to speak at the top of the next hour during the american workforce advisory board meeting at white house. the dow loses 129. that will do it for the "claman countdown." melissa: visiting with top executives at the white house. all three major averages ending the day in the red as investors await any progress between the u.s. and china on trade. any minute now 25 prominent ceos, including apple's tim cook will meet with president trump, marking the first meeting of the administration's new workforce advisory board. busy day. i'm melissa francis. connell: i'm connell mcshane. we'll cover all of that welcome to "after the bell" with the dow ending the session lower by 132. the s&p and nasdaq also in negative territory. that is the third day in a row they're down. s&p by 18. nasdaq by 70 points.

melissa says, busy day. blake burman live at white house, deirdre bolton at floor of new york stock exchange, phil flynn watching oil from the cme. edward lawrence at the office of the u.s. trade representative. blake, start with you ahead of the big meeting at the white house. reporter: this is the first meeting of the american workforce advisory board. a gathering of leaders from all over the country, state and local governments, those within the education community as well and ceos, ceo, chief executive of apple will be here today, tim cook inside of the white house as part of this meeting along with handful of other ceos, including leaders of lockheed martin, visa, home depot and ibm. this is an initiative led by ivanka trump and the commerce secretary as well, wilbur ross as this group is discussing workforce development issues. for example, data transparency, if you're seeking a job, making sure folks have the best

available data at their fingertips. along with modernize candidate recruitment, pushing a message, if you're looking for a good, well-paying job you might necessarily need a four-year degree from a university to obtain that. that is some of the things the group is talking about for the last couple hours at the white house for the first-ever meeting. we're set to hear from president trump shortly as he joins the discussion. connell: thank you, blake. melissa: now to deirdre bolton on the floor of the new york stock exchange. deirdre? >> closing in the red. as you can tell from the intraday red closing much close he to intraday lows than intraday highs. taking a look at stocks that really weighed on the dow, walgreen boot alliance taking a big hit. the company down 3%. the fda looking into the possibility or the fact that the company may have been selling tobacco products or tobacco-related products to kids. lots of selling on that stock.

exxonmobil, we saw the price of crude moving lower. that affected trade overall in the energy sector. some stocks limited broader losses on the dow, disney, jpmorgan chase putting out a positive note on the stock but overall this pattern is really representative of what we saw in the broader markets. only two areas propping up sop of the losses. utilities, materials, defensive on the new york stock exchange. energy and health care the two biggest laggards. i want to point out ge as well. the stock is 8% lower. the company say for this year it will be cash flow negative. now the ceo did say for the next two years they do see that improving but you can obviously see where sentiment was focused more on 2019 than 2020 or 2021. the company selling $8 billion worth of assets in the fourth quarter but the company really trying to reposition itself, clean itself up a bit. obviously today is just evidence of the fact that it's a little

bit messy. back to you guys in the studio. connell: we'll bring in our panel. jonathan hoenig from the capitalist pig hedge fund, fox news contributor, hadley heat manning, independent women's forum policy director and todd horowitz here, the bubba trading show host. we're waiting for the event at the white house, once that begins we'll go to it. we'll have a few minutes to talk about it real quick. one question, todd, we'll do it with you, day on wall street, day days in a row to the downside. we're waiting on china. we know what the fed is doing. almost like the market is transitioning, what do you make of the price action on equity side you're seeing? >> markets are in consolidation. traying at upper end the range, bottom end of the range, russell is falling 4%. i think that is something to watch out for but general markets are just consolidating waiting for something to break out to the upside or the

downside. until they do they will turn these tight ranges. that has been the story for about the last 12 or 13 days. we've been in a tight range. connell: we'll see how it goes from here on out. i want to spend the rest of the time talking about the panel at white house, jonathan. there is significant to the content they're talking about. we get into trade and all the issues we have but as ivanka trump said we don't have the people to fill the jobs, getting them trained the right way to do it, should be a priority. how you do that what your priorities are in order. what do you think is most important? >> immigration discussion and the employment discussion have come together. they have come together today at the white house which is why connell, we'll be very focused whatever the president says in these comments. but as you said we're in interesting confluence in the american economy right now. very low unemployment number. a lot of companies need jobs, still not a lot of necessarily employees to fill those jobs. i'm of the mind as was said that

now is a time for caution. today was the first day in quite many weeks that we had more 52-week lows than 52 highs. so i'm a bull on economy but i am cautious when it comes to the market right now given the breadth that seems to be changing in light of the economic situation. connell: hadley, this event may have political significance. certainly has economic significance we're discussing but it is being dubbed as the most high-profile gathering of business leaders at the white house in 18 months. remember these types of meetings were commonplace early in the trump at administration. after the president's handling of charlottesville quite frankly, these types of meetings stopped happening, now they're happening again. is there significance tim cook and leaders coming back to the white house whatever the topic? >> certainly i think this bodes well for the white house working together with private industry especially on workforce issues which in the public policy arena

can discuss on tax policy, and education where i think there is opportunity for bipartisanship particularly when it comes to higher education. we can all recognize you're the kind of person can easily follow road map from high school to four year degree, you have get the degree have a good-paying job afterwards maybe that system is working well for a lot of students but a lot of students don't fit into that category. exploring options, maybe exploring an apprenticeship model like germany or britain. we do have about 7 million open jobs in the economy. not just for lack of workers, but for lack of workers with the right skills. melissa: absolutely. the european union top trade negotiator and robert lighthizer are meeting in washington today to work out a trade deal between the eu and the u.s. edward lawrence is outside the trade representatives office in d.c. with the latest.

edward? >> melissa, that meeting will happen within the hour here. the eu trade commission will try to further an agreement. the u.s. trade representative says they're at a stalemate over agriculture. the eu will not put agriculture on the table. they want to do a piecemeal, sort of putting together different agreements, one for manufacturing, one for auto, one for intellectual property. the u.s. would like to do it all at one time. looming over all of this is the fact that the president could impose up to 25% tariff on autos and auto parts coming into this country. the eu is operating under the assumption the president will not do that as long as talks are ongoing which is something he verbally agreed to. again frustration is developing within the administration about the inability to move these talks forward. now another big thing that folks are watching in the administration here is the china trade. the deficit with china hit an all-time high in 2018. that number $419 billion is what

that gap is, mainly because of the strong dollar but also because some companies were sort of buying ahead to try to get in before the tariffs went up to 25% on $200 billion worth of chinese good. now we know the president suspended indefinitely that increase of tariffs. nothing's really going to happen this week except because the chinese have their version of congress going on but in one of those meetings the commerce ministry of china says, quote, the two sides made important initial progress. breakthrough in some areas -- which both sides will not raise tariffs. there isn't much more that china could raise tariffs on but again trying to move forward the president says they are still moving forwards towards a deal possibly around the end of march. we'll have to see if the two presidents can get together. the ball is in china's court right now. melissa: edward lawrence, thank you for that. a lot to chew on there. jonathan, let's start with the idea that there is breakthrough

in some areas. >> this is on going issue, everyone from the federal reserve or ceos of every fortune 500 company mentioned trade specifically as being a hindrance to their business now. this has been a long time coming. we've seen some false flags if you will of promises of this trade war being resolved. the president told us many months ago trade wars ared and simple to win. it hasn't been easy to win, melissa. it cost american consumers billions and billions of dollars, yet a bottom line drag when it comes to most of america's large corporations. >> hadley, we're talking about transformational change here in terms of what we're trying to do with all the different deals. we didn't get out of nafta what we wanted to get out of it, trying to redo that, trying to deal with canada, trying to deal with china. overall how much progress do you think we've made so far? >> i think we made a lot of progress on those deals that you mentioned. china however, is a more complex relationship. a lot of factors are straining

our relationship with china. maybe it is simple to win a trade war if you're looking at just the math, looking at just the trade deficit is or amount of tariffs either side is implementing but when it comes to china some of those issues edward mentioned intellectual property rights, even things including human rights and certainly geopolitical trust issues we might have with china, mean even if we could come to a wonderful, fantastic, huge deal president trump could negotiate we still have issue making sure that china sticks to any deal. i think our relationship with china is really unique and for all those reasons makes finding the perfect trade deal very difficult. melissa: it does but finding a better trade deal may not be as difficult as finding a perfect trade deal of course. and if you look at, i mean, i don't know, todd, it is interesting the carrot and the stick here. so you have on one hand huawei getting very tough treatment. cfo right now, you know facing criminal charges in canada,

trying to figure out what's going to happen here in the u.s. but the flip side of that is the postponing indefinitely, you know, of increasing what those tariffs were going to be, putting that off. so how do you evaluate the carrot versus the stick here with china? is it a good balance? >> i think right now everything is as it should be and i don't see the big ordeal that everybody is talking about. i think this is an excuse for companies to raise their prices. same as they use when they talk about the dollar. i think intellectual property is big hang-up. the bottom line if they don't agree they will steal them anyways. everybody is trying to steal intellectual properties in history we've gone after it. i think trump has to stand firm here, make them come to see that they have got to do business with us. that is what i believe. i think overall picture is very clear, that they're taking advantage and no matter what we want to talk about, biggest recipients of all these queer deals are politicians and

lobbyists. those are the ones who get the cash. in the united states you have got farmers talking about, real problem with the farmers is that we've got oversupply, not because there is trade wars we had three years of bumper-to-bumper crops, there has been no weather issues. they will have to eat, have to use our grains. meantime grain prices recently have not fallen that greatly until the last couple days. this has been going on over a year. connell: want to move on to talk to the huawei story melissa brought up. indeed the cfo is facing extradition to the united states. appearing in court as trade talks continue between united states and china. kristina partsinevelos covering it all and joins us with the latest details. >> this 46-year-old cfo appeared in court in vancouver but it was very, very quick. it was mostly about scheduling. they have readjourned until may 8th on 10:00 a.m. the situation is still that the cfo, this is meng wanzhou who gets to stay in british

columbia. she has gps tracker around her ankle. she gets to roam about with one million dollar canadian bail. this plays into the strained relationship between china and canada too. it is not just all about the united states for them. canada trying to help democratic ally, the united states. tensions have risen. you have two canadians being held in china at the moment on spying accusations. you have a third canadian caught for smuggling drugs. now seeing a death penalty and death sentence. now, sorry, the latest news today is china put a ban on canadian canola oil due to possible concerns of insect infestation. you have just china weighing in about the political drama boeing on in canada involving prime minister trudeau and a bribery case. so it is very, very strained situation. at this point though, canada most likely will hand over the candidate, that would be the

cfo, but this will be an ongoing process. reason i say most likely because canada is usually follows through helps out their allies that would be the united states. this case could be seen in may. we know that the cfo was arrested due to violations, allegations of violations against u.s. sanctions on iran. this is a big situation in canada. huawei still sponsors hockey night in canada. connell: there is that. we will watch closely obviously at same time trade talks. as kristina is talking vice president entered the room at white house. tim cook, ceo of apple. we'll take it live when it starts. melissa. melissa: workforce advisory board meeting you're looking at there. we saw tim cook, ceo of apple waiting around the table. we're waiting for the president to come out. every thing they're talking about is top of mind. they're trying to speak the problem where we have

7.5 million jobs in this country. right now we have people who are still looking for work. but there is a mismatch skills needed and workers out there if they have them or not. we'll dip into that as soon as it happens. energy dragging on the market today. oil closing down the second day in a row. let's go to phil flynn to get his take on trade. phil? >> big build in oil supplies did catch a lot of traders by surprise. you talk about mismatch of jobs, we have a mismatch of jobs. we have lot of shale oil, not heavy oil, but that is one of the problems with the loss of venezuelan supply. guess who came to the rescue today? canada of all places. canada upped exports to the u.s. seeps like they're taking advantage of the lost venezuelan supply. they're feeding as you lot of oil. look at big build in crude supply, melissa, you think demand is terrible. it really isn't.

refinery runs demand is much stronger than anticipated last week. if you look at supplies, such as gasoline and distillate demand, very, very strong last week, up week over week. gasoline demand over nine million barrels a day. so actually if you look at gasoline prices they're starting to edge up here, they saw a big drawdown in supply. we saw a draw downin diesel supply as well. and what that says, refiners are probably going to need that 7 million barrels to replace supplies of products that we sell. a very interesting day on oil. melissa: phil flynn, thank you so much. connell: all right, mark zuckerberg i don't believe is one of those ceos in the room you're looking at at the white house. tim cook of apple is. mr. zuckerberg's company certainly in the news. the camera pans, president enters the room. we tell you as we continue about the facebook news later on possibly in the program. facebook with message about privacy and encryption.

we'll get to that. president entered the room where he is meeting, first gathering of american workforce policy advisory board as melissa was saying. tim cook he shook hands from apple he right away as he entered. ivanka trump is heading up this initiative matching skills with workers with positions that are open. there are some open positions. melissa: she is heading up a task force about what needs to be done. about a partnership with private companies and skills and workers to get the balance right, get people trained. as soon as president starts speaking we'll listen in here. here is ivanka. >> last several hours excellent discussion with objective of advancing a national workforce strategy. our collective aim is to insure that all americans can benefit from the nation's historic economic boom and record low unemployment rates. this board of industry,

education, government, non-profit leaders is passionate about bringing more americans off the sidelines into the workforce. we're seeking to increase the country's workforce participation rates by connecting workers with good-paying jobs. we focus on those most vulnerable having jobs displaced due to the rapid pace of technological change. work together to assist them, learning a new skill, so they continue to provide for themselves and their families. today we discussed in detail the four goals that are mandate of this specific council. first is to develop a robust campaign to promote multiple pathways to good paying jobs, dispelling a myth there is only one path to a successful career. six improving availability high quality, transparent data informing educators and workers to match american workers with american jobs. third, modernizing recruitment and training practice to expand

pool of job applicants are employers are looking to hire. finally, investments. we're championing seeking further private sector leadership, investment in workforce development. as we look to the future this board will also influence our legislative agenda to mobilize our higher education system and help us be more responsive to today's students and job creators and this is something that we're optimistic can be done in this congress. i'd like to thank you, mr. president, for being here and for your steadfast commitment to pro-growth economic agenda that is creating tremendous opportunity for all americans. just this past quarter a remarkable 73% of people who started out at work had been out of the workforce the previous month rather than being unemployed. that's the highest share of people entering the labor force from the sidelines since we started tracking this metric

decades ago. with record low unemployment rates across all demographics we will continue to focus on fostering inclusive growth that lifts up all of our citizens. we have an extraordinary opportunity and this extraordinary group around the table, titans of industry, education innovators and pillars of our community, will help us a make a difference in the lives of millions of our fellow citizens. we are taking advantage of this incredible moment to assure america retains it is leadership role. now, mr. president, i turn the floor over to you. >> she is so formal. [laughter]. special person. she worked so hard as you all know. i want to thank you, ivanka for your devotion to the america workers, our great workers and nobody has workers like we do. so i want to thank you, honey. because great job, very great job. [applause] she works very hard on this i

will say and she has created a lot of happy families because, you're going to be up to close to 7 million people pretty soon. you are very responsible along with many of the people at this table. i'm going to ask i think for you, maybe before i even speak to go around the table, because this is such a distinguished group and just introduce yourself. we have a few of the media back there. and just a small group you know. tim, sometimes you have to see some of these groups. it is pretty amazing what they do. they break down the walls and windows and everything else in order to get in but we have great representative media back. i thought you should really take some of the credit for what you've done. maybe like to start with tim cook who has done such a an incredible job at apple, become a friend mine. he is a friend because he does a great job. we want to get things done. employs so many people, brought a lot of money back into our country because of the new tax

law. he is spending that money very wisely, done just an incredible job. tim, maybe you could start, please. >> sure. thank you, mr. president. it is an honor to serve on this counsel. i have always thought that america is special in so many ways but at the heart is all of its people. that to me is what the group is about. our company as you know was founded by a college dropout. we never really thought that college degree was the, was the thing that you had to have to do well. we've always tried to expand our horizons. and so that degree about, half of our u.s. employment last year were people that did not have a four-year degree. and we're very proud of that but we want to go further and, so to that end, as we have looked at the, the sort of the mismatch between the skills coming out of

colleges and what the skills are that we believe we need in the future, many other businesses do, we have identified coding as a very key one. and we believe strongly that it should be requirement in the united states for every kid to have coding before they graduate from k-12. somewhat proficient at it. so we have provided, we have done a curriculum now and provided it to all schools in the united states. 4,000 picked it up. now we have a lot further to go because there is a lot more than 4,000 schools in america but that is a start. we've also done that with 80 community colleges. we're really proud of that, particularly with the work we're doing in austin. and providing coding education there. there is an enormous deficit in the number of jobs versus the number of candidates. so we're proud to take part and to help, to get this alignment

much better between education and private sector. we realize that in something this large, it takes government, private sector, and education all oaring in the same direction and we're very proud to be a part of it. >> well, thank you, tim. great job. >> thank you. >> kim? >> i too want to echo my pressure shun for having the opportunity to serve on this board. i'm excited about what's happening across this country. iowa has the lowest unemmoment rate in the nation at 2.4%. our economy is growing. we had four straight quarters of wage growth in iowa. we're no different than other states. we have jobs looking for people. so i'm anxious to work -- public/private partnership is the answering. that is how it will work. iowa has a goal of having 70% of iowans in the workforce to have education or training beyond high school by the year 2025.

we're a the 58%. set the goals now. doing that through register to apprenticeship programs. we have computer sciences elementary that will launch six computer science he will ministries in the -- elementaries target high poverty areas to produce a capable ready workforce. most importantly, i will pass it, make sure your students, iowans know there are multiple paths to great careers and those careers exist in iowa. >> thank you. kim had a great victory. governor of iowa. just defeated somebody who spent unlimited money. it was unlimited. called talent. great job. >> mr. president thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. i'm from the city of charlotte. we're a city where we want everyone to have the ability to participate in the economic opportunity and we are the second largest banking center

now in the country. that may be good or bad. but nonetheless, when we look at that, we also have to weigh it against those that haven't had a chance. this opportunity, i think, will provide us pathways, innovations, collaborations to some accomplish that, so people left out can get in, a great home, a safe place to live and a job that they can be proud of. >> thank you very much. we have our big convention in your city as you know. >> that's true. we're getting ready. a lot of people wanted it. you got it. i will see you soon. thank you. >> mr. president, sean mcgarvey with north america building trades union. i want thank you for the opportunity to work with terrific cochairs and colleagues around the table. issues that are really important to the building trades. and i want to let you know, we made a commitment to you last year of 250,000 new apprentices

last year. so we're following through on our commitment. thank you. >> mr. president, jay box, from great commonwealth of kentucky representing 1.3 million people. more particularly representing 16 comprehensive community colleges in our 73 campuses around the state. in kentucky we're committed to agree, credentials because we know the workforce needs us to turn out workforce faster. we like to say instead of a career pathway, a career freeway with many on-ramps and exit ramps so that students can come into our institutions at anytime, and exit once they get a credential right into the workforce and later on come right back in for further skill training. >> thank you.

>> mr. president, nice to see you. i'm very pleased to be here. this project addressing itself to the two fundamental challenges we face in the business community and in our society, that is, people without jobs and massive numbers of jobs without people and i believe the work that will take place here immediately, just with people working with one another, will add to the solution of both of those challenges. thank you, very much. >> thank you, mr. president. scott sanders, national association of state workforce agencies. it has been great to be around this table with employers, educators, and others. we already started talking with tom how we can help across all the states, help those unemployed, underskilled and out of the workforce, how do we get them back in to help fill 7.3 million jobs. honored to be here. >> thank you very much, thank

you. >> mr. president, sheree utash, wichita state university, which at that kansas, air capital of the world. wonderful we have to deal with this and find solutions for. thank you for all your efforts. we say at our college, hope has a face, and it is the face of our students. we know from education, higher education we have to be innovative and disruptive in order to be in line and aligned with business an industry. so we're doing a lot of that. hope to continue to do that and i can assure you from the two-year sector along with dr. bumpus, we are doing everything we can to create the workforce of the future. >> thank you very much. thank you. >> mr. president, marianne wanamaker, labor economist from the university of tennessee. really administration should be

applauded putting a spotlight using federal data to solve some of our biggest challenges and this is one of those places where we really have a lot of assets at our disposal. i'm excited to help the board with these issues. >> thank you very much. >> good afternoon, mr. president, good to see you again. we were here a year ago with the apprenticeship tack force. the administration should be applauded and focus on and spotlight on very important issue. i would be remiss, all my colleagues would agree if we didn't commend ivanka and secretary ross for leadership they provided to what i think will be outstanding work we'll do together. again thank you for your leadership, sir. >> thank you very much. governor? >> mr. president, let me pile on the praise for your administration's and entire administration for that matter, just laser focus on this topic.

it is going to, whether we like it around this table or not, it will define our nation. it will define our states, our organizations, our companies and legacy that we leave behind us when we get this right and you are, so i just want to express another debt of gratitude for trusting us. last year your administration, department of labor granted us a waiver that enabled us to cut our workforce council in the state of indiana about in half, it allowed us to operate at the speed of this table and businesses around it. that made all the difference in the world. as you continue to trust us, the states to own it and to prove it we will show america what works and what doesn't and that will take us to the next level. >> thank you, eric. that's great. >> lockheed martin, i just wanted to tell you, mr. president how honored i am to serve on advisory board but to commend you and your

administration on focus getting american workers for the future of advanced economy we're in. not just about today's mismatch and things we're working on today but get us prepared for continued economic growth. what you have done with tax reform, regulatory reform, helped us to reinvest in our businesses, reinvest in our workforce. we thank you for that, commend you for that. >> thank thank you, marilyn. how is the f-35 doing. >> it is doing great. >> we spoke to competitor countries, we have a problem, you can't see it. how do you do with your plane compared to this one. this one you can't see. i would say they have a, our pilots have pretty big advantage with the f-35. great job you have done. a great plane. everybody loves it. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. president, for making the american workforce one of your top priorities as president. thank you also for putting in place the economic policies

dedicated to proposition that american workers form the backbone of our economy. thank you too, to the members of the new workforce advisory board for such an insightful and high-energy discussion. now the real work begins. in the next 12 months between now and actually july of 2020, this advisory board will develop recommendations under the four major points that we discussed this afternoon. and those recommendations go to the national council for the american worker which ivanka and i could chair with secretary acosta and domestic policy council director joe grogan. we're looking forward to the implementation phase which as you know execution is the key to everything. >> thank you, wilbur. mike? , mike pence. >> mr. president, i would just, i want to commend ivanka and the secretary for implementing your vision of workforce innovation

in this country and i want to thank governor reynolds, governor holcomb and tim and marilyn and jenny and alan. this is extraordinary group of industry leaders that you brought together. i want to assure you, one of the very first conversations the president and i had when he was considering me for this position back in the campaign of 2016 was about workforce, about his passion for what we call vocational, technical education. and i just want to assure you as you will hear first-hand again from the president today that this is enormously high priority of this administration. we're very grateful to each and everyone of you for engaging and bringing best practices and best ideas forward. >> thanks, mike. >> mr. president, mr. vice president, ivanka started the meeting today, actually twice, talking about the strength of the economy and i think i applaud any organization, in this particular

case the u.s. government and your administration for actually planning for the future when things are actually strong and i think that is a really, really smart thing and very, very good leadership. we're excited about doing everything we can to be a part of it. >> thank you very much, al. we're grateful. >> barbara hunt, siemens usa. such an honor to be included in this brilliant group. siemens comes to the table open to sharing, open to learning from our colleagues. i've got a special focus on this forth objective, the idea what gets measured gets done. the idea we can use our measurements and track progress to encourage others to be engaged in the initiative. thank you. >> really a great job. in fact specifically ivanka canted me to point you out and say, dad, she said, dad she has done a great job. i appreciate it. >> thank you so much. and thank you, ivanka.

>> jim clark, president of boys & girls clubs of america and thank you for hosting our youth of year, five of them this morning at your office with the vice president. they enjoyed the opportunity to interact with you. thank you for including boys & girls clubs in this important endeavor. out of school time matters. kids spend more time out of school than in school and our focus is on that pathway to success and a great future instilling essential skills as well as critical job readiness skills like stem education and other important factors. so thank you for including boys & girls club. >> thanks, jim. >> mr. president, mike from the milken institute. i know you know the work of the institute as well. but for others we're a non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to build meaningful lives. our mission is to use the power of financial markets improve

access to capital job creation, improve health. i'm so excited to be part of this effort what i think of building a virtuous cycle investing in the american dream by investing in each other so thank you. >> thank you very much. >> mr. president, elizabeth gettle, 35 private schools exclusively serving low income students through special agreement with the united states department of labor. every single student works one day a week in entry level professional job, law firms, engineering firms, technology industry and like. transfersing soft skills that take them to any job in the workforce persistence, communication, and strong work ethic. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> mr. president, jay timmons, international association of manufacturers. i had the great fortune yesterday of being able to announce results first quarter 2019 survey of manufacturers with the vice president present

at our board of directors meeting. as you know that survey has been going on for 20 years. i was able to announce we have nine consecutive quarters of record optimism for manufacturers. >> right. >> 91.8%. that is no accident. that is because of tools we've been given to invest, hire, wages and benefits through tax reform, through regulatory certainty and that created a bit of a challenge for us. we have 428,000 jobs open in manufacturing. our manufacturing institute predicts that number will increase to 2.4 million in the next 10 years. so this board, this advisory board, it is perfect timing. thank you for taking this on. thank you to ivanka for your passion on this issue. it really is going to matter for america's future. it is going to matter for our success in the global economy. >> thank you, jay. if you remember from past years others said manufacturing was not going to happen, those jobs were never coming back and they are coming back. >> they're coming roaring back. >> right.

they're roaring back. we have 600,000. it will be a lot higher than that when the next report comes out. it is really been something. the manufacturing jobs, we'll be up to getting close to record numbers. nobody thought they were coming back. i said how does that not happen, right? if manufacturing jobs come back, does the country come back? we're doing really well. i think also in your numbers it was the biggest increase in the history of your chart. and that is something that made be very happy. not last jump but initial jump. >> 56% to 93%. it was huge jump. >> i had to bring that up. that watts initial one. the last one was nice jump but we were competing against ourselves but the initial, went from 56 to 93. so that was pretty big jump. that shows optimism which is big part of what we're doing. thank you very much, jay. >> thank you for your leadership. >> thank you. keep it up. >> mr. president, thank you for a this focus on this area.

i have benefit of spending a lot of time for you. i know the passion for your yea. thank you for the leadership. we have exextrordinary leadership around the table. we have practical and actions. >> thanks, chris, great job. >> mr. president, mr. vice president, scott pulisuf. president of western governors university. thank you for secretary ross and vang viewing to be here. we were founded on premise and pure of changing lives of individuals and families. we believe education is the single biggest catalyst to do so. we believe it is surest path to opportunity in the form of a great job and provident life. we have mission to expand access to high quality education with great out comes, we need more accessible, more affordable, nor more aligned pathways to the workforce the future. it is opportunity to work together with our colleagues. >> thank you, scott. thank you. >> mr. president, juanita dougan, nfib, national

federation of independent business. we've been representing hundreds of thousands of small businesses across america for 75 years. thanks to you and the last congress you gave us the largest tax cut in history for america small business and the small business economy has been on fire. you also broke records for optimism in small business for the last two years. and for years taxes an regulations were the biggest problems facing small business. vice president knows this as well. and now those are not the problems but finding qualified labor is the biggest problem for small business. record numbers of small business owners declared that they can't find any applicants for their open jobs. so this is becoming a crisis. as good as the economy is for small business it is not sustainable if we can't fix this serious labor shortage. >> i agree. >> thank you very much it's an honor to serve on this committee. thank you also for the whole administration's focus on small business the last two years. it has been extraordinary. >> thank you very much, juanita.

>> mr. president, mr. vice president, craig menir from home depot. it's a privilege to serve american workers here with the esteemed colleagues around the table. we thank you for the opportunity. we're passionate at home depot about helping our associates grow their careers. to run a retailer the scale of home depot you need everything from engineering to data science to folks who have outstanding people skills and passion for customer service. and we're privileged to serve on this committee to help drive this forward to continue to grow this economy. thank you. >> thank you very much. great job you're doing. >> mr. president, and mr. vice president, i like everyone am very honored to be on this committee and i have to add just two other comments to those already made. so to both secretary ross and ivanka i would add the word you unwavering leadership. for as long as you have been in office i can remember this has

been a top issue and it has been unwavering through thick and thin, their support on this and yours and i'm also very optimistic about this in that i think we have a chance not only to say this is a very strong economy till with be an inclusive economy because i think as a result of all this work we have a chance to employ so many more people and not always with a college degree. less than four year degree will get a very good-paying job in the new economy. and so to me that would be just a really wonderful contribution, both strong and inclusive economy. so thank you for the opportunity. >> thank you very much, ginny. >> johnny taylor society for research management, charm. we share something, a common passage that is for workforce. what i hear the vice president say i know ivanka is living it means a lot to our profession. you created a different problem. now businesses are telling us they don't have a problem accessing financial capital,

they have a problem accessing human capital. that is a high-class problem. human resources profession is committed to resolving it. thank you for that opportunity. >> thank you very much, johnny. we'll open up the labor forces because we have to. we have so many companies coming in, people like tim, you're expanding all over, doing things i wanted to you right from the beginning. i used to say tim, you have to start using it over here. you really have. you put a big investment in our country. we appreciate it. tim from apple. but we're opening it up. we have to bring people in. we want them to be people based on merit. we want them to come on legally. you see what is going on at the border. we're doing a great job, whether border patrol, i.c.e., law enforcement generally. we're all working generally. we have our military at border. 8,000 military personnel at the border. we are doing an amazing job considering it's really onslaught pretty much.

i call it invasion. they always get upset when i say invasion but it is really somewhat of an invasion. we're stopping drugs at a record level but record record number of drugs are pouring up-and-coming up we're getting it up. nobody knew about it, it has been going on a million years actually. it has been going on a long time. we seen it, we spotted it. it is slowed down. we can't slow it down unless we have strong and powerful separation between us and whoever it is may be, in this case it happen to be mexico. mexico helped us but mexico has a record number of murders this year. a number that is so large it is actually hard to believe and we're working very hard on doing, actually having one of the safest we ever been. we have many so of the best

numbers we ever had from the standpoint of crime. murders, killings, included, one of our best years ever was last year. and we're down 6% from last year. so that is very important. but we want to have a very strong border but we have a lot of people coming in. a lot of people are coming in. people think we're shutting it out. we're not shutting it out. but they have to come in through a process. we have a process moving along rapidly. last year we took in a large number of highly qualified wonderful people, for the most part they're working already. they're working in your companies but we have a lot of companies coming in. i was with prime minister abe, we spoke the other day, he said japan will be sending about 7, at least seven more big factories into this country. got to do more than that. we have too big of a deficit with japan. we have for a long time. you saw couple of openings, big

openings in michigan. chrysler-fiat announced they will spend $4.5 billion in michigan around the detroit area. we have tremendous number of not only car companies. we have a lot of car companies coming in. they're coming in, building new. they're also expanding, they're going to pennsylvania. they're going to ohio. very heavy in michigan. south carolina, north carolina. all over. we have, we have companies coming into this country at a record place and really at a pace that nobody thought possible because nobody thought you would ever see these particular companies again. many of them are coming back. they want to be where the action is. they're coming back. they left years ago. i used to talk about it as a civilian but they left years ago and now they're coming back and they're coming back in numbers nobody believed. so we'll let a lot of people come in because we need workers. we have to have workers. unemployment at 3.7, 3.6 probably. these are low numbers and in one

way i love it but in another way i don't want to make it hard for you to get those companies rolling with really great people because without the great people it doesn't work. all of these wonderful things we talk about are nice but you need as you discussed, you need the people and you need really good people and we have great people and we have the best in the world in my opinion and we are having other people come into our country you will be very proud of and the job they do. one of the things that has happened, people don't talk about it, because of the great economy, we have a prison population that, for the first time ever is getting a shot at working. when they got out of prison they had a stigma, it was a tough stigma. and in many cases there was not much they could do. they couldn't get a job. they couldn't, no matter what, they couldn't get a job. now they're getting jobs because our economy is so strong.

because you want workers and i've spoken to at least six big employers and they are loving what they see. they cannot even believe how good some of these people are. not in all cases i guess but you can say that about everybody but how great they have been. it is very nice to hear. first time ever, first time that ever happened. to a large extent because we take some credit because of the economy, but it is an incredible thing what is happening with respect to the prison population. they're getting out. they're getting jobs. they're doing a fantastic job. it is really beautiful to see. i just want, many of you are friends, i want to thank you all for what you have done. i also want to thank doug mcmillan, ceo of walmart. they have been fantastic. ivanka and i know that because they have just hired tremendous amounts of people. and william mcdermott of sap, they have really stood out and

they, very special people and i just want to thank them in addition to folks around the table. thank you all for being here. thanks for the incredible job you've done. we appreciate it very much. tim, thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. >> thank you very much, everybody. thank you. press, thank you. appreciate it. >> [inaudible] >> we're going to have lot of people coming into the country. we want a lot of people coming in. we need it. it is not a question do we want it. these folks will have to sort of not expand too much. if you tell them, these are very ambitious people around the table, they don't like the concept of not expanding. would you say that is right, barbara? barbara is not into non-expansion. we want to have companies grow and only way they will grow if we give them the workers. only way we have the workers to do exactly what we're doing. thank you all very much. appreciate it.

[shouting questions] >> thank you very much. [inaudible] connell: meeting at white house with the american workforce policy advisory board, sitting next to the apple ceo. tim cook there, the discussion around the table with the likes of tim cook from apple, ginny rometty from ibm. marilyn houston from lockheed martin, focused on retraining of the workforce, advisory board that the president's daughter ivanka trump is heading up. president few minutes at end, focusing his remarks on immigration and also on prison reform relating those back to employment. obviously, melissa, a topic we talk about all the time. gives us a lot to talk about here today. melissa: we want to bring the panel back in. jonathan, hadley and todd with us. hadley, start with you, you look at that room, tim cook in the room, someone who doesn't have a lot of common with the president

philosophically, to me this remind me of criminal justice reform where if you could put politics aside you can bring people together who have very sincere needs and can collaborate. this is a problem where we have all of these jobs open in this country. we have a lot of people who need jobs. we have mismatch of skills. companies have a big incentive to come forward and to provide the training and partner with local communities to make an investment. get the talent. hadley, do you think this is something we can actually make progress on like criminal justice reform? >> i hope so. certainly the comments from people around the table, focus on practical solutions and we see other countries they do better middle skills training in terms of apprenticeship. private sector plays a big role. ultimately private sector benefits from well trained

workforce. it benefits them to have a seat at table. melissa: jonathan, i went to the kitchen and bath industry show, people there looking to do this, to partner, companies looking to partner with skills. it wasn't just about middle schools. it was about people looking for coders, looking for artists, looking for builders, looking for architects. they're willing to teach, make the investment. they need the schools to let them in. they don't -- schools don't want to be the, don't need to be ones that teach them. let's partner. we can all benefit. i'm hopeful about this. what do you think? >> american business, melissa, has great history finding, even teaching employees we need. go back to milton hershey many, many years ago. what you saw this afternoon from the president, from the white house this nexus of immigration, employment, low unemployment, low unemployment rate, need for skilled workers, question who exactly to let in. the question talked about once

again need for merit. he needs to take credit for strong unemployment, low unemployment rate, very strong economy but at same point as he said you have employers, massive fortune 500 companies that depend on trade, free flow of capital and free flow of employees as well to this country. melissa: yeah. todd, what are your thoughts on this? >> i think it goes back to real education, melissa. i think one of the big things we have in the country with standardized tests, taking out work study programs of the they taken out all the programs that create young people, teach them these skills, whether it be coding welding, any skills we need in this country. but of course we're in in no child left behind and standardized tests which takes away ability for skills to teach people, what i went through high school, they had a work study program, could you learn different skills. that is what we're really missing here. that is the biggest issue, education of getting people prepared to come out into society.

melissa: that's so true. hadley, you know, we heard, somebody there that was from a university talking about the fact that it is a freeway, training between the companies and the schools. it has to be, you get off, go have training do a certain kind of job but you get back on when you want more training or want to change direction and go in a different way. not like what people think of, where you're a plumber's apprentice. then you're a plumber for the rest of your life. not that kind of a program. >> exactly. melissa: it is kind of where for all different levels of companies you get the training. a lot has to do with putting costs off on the companies, rather than the taxpayer because the companies are willing to make the investment. i have never had the experience where i talked to a company, they said, we are willing to do training, pay for training, give us the people because then it is an investment, we have those workers right, hadley? a lot of this could be, it is not talking about taxpayer

dollars. >> that is what ivanka trump is talking about, sim that is agile flexible. we bring in mind the college student, reality education is lifelong process. melissa: yeah. >> because of developments we can't always foresee, technological advancement, changes in the global economy, jobs going overseas, american workers need opportunities later in life to retool so that, as uber-ization of our economy and technological changes maybe certain jobs obsolete or change nature of those jobs. workers continue to stay engaged. melissa: that is great point, jonathan. what about making >> well, i mean right now, education, in this country, melissa is dominated by the government i think that's one of the reasons why you've seen especially in the last number of decades the cost of education go up and the if cassie of that

education go down and i think that point is straight on companies are very willing to make the investment in the employees if they know those employees will stay and be accretive to their bottom line. >> so one of the things that i'd be curious about is whether you think government has a role in incentivizing that to happen, because to melissa's point this is a totally different approach, todd in how we're going about it because we've heard about re training of workforces for years but this administration in its last budget cut the labor department funding by more than 20% the president has a budget coming out next week we may see further cuts so they're saying it's not about the money we spend on programs, i would think it's about either the incentives that we give to companies, or maybe we can help with cutting the red tape, and deregulation that that play a role possibly in the retraining of the workforce as well as its already played a role in other parts of the economy. >> connell it certainly can make some changes. again, i would like the government, let private industry and the free markets take over the education. they will work it out but

obviously we have a lot of these regulations, a lot of these things that go in that prevent me from spending to educate. give me a big tax write up for educating for putting together a group of training for all of my employees. take care of me and i'll take care of you we co-ed you indicate but the more the government gets involved the more they take money away from the system and of course it gets flushed down the toilet versus going to reeducating these employees and put them in the right job and the opportunity to be successful. connell: hadley quick thought on the role the government plays in all of this? >> well government could at least take a lesser role in prop ping up the traditional school system, the traditional education higher education system for example, in the student loans industry which the government took over, in 2009- 2010 that has led to much higher tuition rates making higher education unaffordable for many people leaving a lot of workers with a mountain of debt they are trying to pay off so certainly we can change the government's role i don't think we're going to get to a place

where we abolish the department of education. connell: we got to wrap it here at the top of the hour, thanks so much, jonathan, hadley and todd first meeting of this group melissa: that's one of the big problems anyway that does it for us. connell: bulls & bears starts right now. david: breaking news from the white house, president trump just meeting with some of the biggest business leaders in america, including apple ceo tim cook, all focusing on the future of the american workforce. hi, everybody this is bulls & bears, we're so glad you could make it today i'm david asman joining me we have susan li, jack howe, and scott martin. president trump: we have companies coming into this country at a record pace and really, at a pace that nobody thought possible, because nobody thought you'd ever see these particular companies again. many of them are coming back. they want to be where the action is. they're coming back. they left years ago, i used to talk about it as a civilian but