references, too. >> reporter: while the droop in weekly jobless claims is encouraging, it's deeper spending cuts from washington that could slow down the job growth momentum. health care is up 320,000 in the last year. construction is on the rebound, adding 28,000 workers in january, the fourth straight month of big gains. in contrast, government workers continue to lose jobs, particularly at the state and local level. down by 24,000 just in the last three months. and layoffs are on the rise. up 55,000 last month, according to consultants at challenger gray and christmas, the second straight monthly increase. the trade deficit topped $44 billion in january, due to more imports. $6 million higher than december and a possible drag on economic growth in the first quarter with a downside ripple effect, economists say, on job growth in the coming months.

>> we're going to have a second-quarter dip, not a decline, just a slowdown in the second quarter. bring it back down below 150,000 workers per month. >> reporter: so, tomorrow when we get the jobs report here at the labor department, economists predict we probably added about 160,000 jobs to payrolls last month, just enough to keep the unemployment rate around 7.9%. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pearson. dig a little deeper as we look ahead to tomorrow's number with diane, chief economist, diane, always good to see ya. >> you, too. >> you heard hampton put his numbers on what the probability is for tomorrow, about 160,000, 165,000 jobs and about a 7.9% unemployment rate. what's your forecast? >> certainly, i was there in the beginning of the week, but what preliminary job numbers we saw from adp and consumer numbers we've seen come out, which

across the board are showing people more optimistic about the month of february, i think we could get closer to 200,000 and be surprised pleasantly on the upside for a change, which would be welcome news at this stage of the game. >> but, diane, there's still a lot of pain in this job market. there are 12 million americans who are out of work. these are the long-term unemployed. and if you look at that measure of u-6, i think they call it, 15% is the unemployment rate, teen unemployment higher than that. ceos we talked to, really not in the mood to higher. what can you tell americans about the health of the job market? >> we're seeing it improve, although the threshold is easy to clear because it's been so lousy for so long. what we're talking about is still a very long slug going forward. i think the intro is very important, because what we're looking at is what could be a turning point in the job market where we see more measurable increases in employment and a wiggling away of the unemployment rate. that could be derailed by what's going on in washington right now, particularly the second

quarter. much of the furloughs and layoffs are in the month of april, which we won't see in the jobs numbers until early may. >> government payrolls are going down as private payrolls are going up. one area i'd like to hear your thoughts are incomes. we have some job growth in the economy, but we have very, very tepid income growth. why isn't anybody getting a raise? >> it's because one of the ongoing slack in labor market, you got a lot of competition for jobs out there, a lot of people willing to take any job you've got, but also a shift in the composition of where we higher. in the health care industry, for instance, highing is robust, but they are cutting nurses wages and substituting high-paid nurses for lower-paid tech personnel. they are paid better than others with an 18-month degree but much lower than nurses. you're seeing shifting going on where high-paid personnel are traded off for lower-paid personnel. even in the health care sector, which has been one of the bright

spots in the overall labor market for some time. the good news is we do have construction coming back. those are high-paid jobs and manufacturing, but not in the volumes we saw, of course, during the height of the housing market boom or the manufacturing sector of what we saw in the past. >> anything that you can say about small business versus big business? we did see in the adp report small businesses continue to higher, but what about bigger companies? >> you know, that's really important, small business in the adp report, because the payroll service company tends to catch new business formations well, which isn't always captured until later. that is actually encouraging news there might be more business formation out there than we're capturing in the official data and we'll get it on later revision. bad news is what you've heard not all big companies are hiring. that's where the hesitancy has been. >> thanks for being with us. >> thanks. one area that continues to higher still is health care,

despite what diane just told us. as jean wells tells us, one unique sliver of that sector is really booming. >> reporter: 88-year-old irvine has been able to age gracefully in her own home with help from caregiver victoria. >> i couldn't live without her. >> reporter: dorothy sable has hired sydney caplan to take her on errands. as america grows older, a growing trend is senior home care, a service not covered by medicare but more americans are able to pay for out of pocket. business is booming. >> this year we'll do about $15 million. we service currently between louisiana and california about 600 clients every day. >> are you hiring? >> we're hiring every day. it's our biggest challenge. >> reporter: jake started alta home care and is hiring more

than 20 people a week, though most applicants are rejected. this is hard work. the average pay is $10 an hour. and it's estimated that 4,000 caregivers and certified nursing assistants are being hired every month in this country. >> the senior care industry just for senior home care has grown by more than 40% in the last five years. >> i love being with the seniors, learning from them, being around them. i love their energy. >> reporter: granny nanny sydney caplan charges $60 an hour. she has a degree in therapeutic recreation who saw a need at the high end. >> they want to be seen with someone that's a professional and that looks like a member of the family. >> reporter: and with 40 million americans at least 65 years old, as they grow older, business will grow with them. for "nightly business report," jane wells, los angeles.

another positive on the economic front, a lot more of us are seeing growth in our net worths. the federal reserve reports as of the final quarter last year americans had gained back just about all of the $16 trillion in household wealth lost in the great recession. americans' net worth now totals $66 trillion, and it rose $1.2 trillion from the third quarter of 2012, with much of the rise coming from higher stock prices. one stock contributing to that wealth effect for american households, google. shares of the search giant have overtaken apple to become the most-owned stock by the 50 biggest u.s. stock mutual funds. and it's not hard to see why. when we look at both companies over the past year, in sync most of the way, then around december google takes off and apple heads south. for the year, google is up 37%, while apple is off almost 19%. with the s&p 500 index

approaching an all-time high, we kick off our market focus tonight with another s&p milestone. standard and poor's reports dividends reached $300 billion for the first time ever. last year s&p 500 companies paid out $21.5 billion in dividends, 406 of the s&p 500 are paying dividends. that's the greatest number since 1999. adding to that, colgate upped 10% today and set a two for one stock split set to take effect april 23rd. shares are up 24% over the past year. the judge ordered mediation for macy's and jc penny over the high-stakes lawsuit over martha stewart's contract telling both sides we live in a free market society and the businesses need to work out a solution.

he gave the parties until april 8th to settle. kroger closed high today, up 22% in the fourth quarter to 86 cents a share. that's way above the 70 cents that wall street expected. the company's forecast for the fiscal year also came in above estimates. kroger raised 50%. 787 dreamliners will remain on the ground. federal aviation investigators reached no conclusions about the cause of a battery fire on one of the jets in boston back in january. the ntsb now plans to hold both a public forum and an investigative hearing in april to focus on the design of that troubled lithium ion battery system. despite that, shares of boeing were the biggest gainers in the dow today, touching a new 52-week high for that company and closing up more than 2%.

another financial blow to bp in the wake of that massive oil spill back in 2010. a federal court in new orleans ordered the oil giant to pay out even more money to more parties than the $20 billion in compensation and cleanup that it was expecting to spend. bp says it will appeal the ruling. and coming up, we're going to talk to gm's ceo about who's buying cars today and the company's commitment to helping detroit get back on its feet. first, let's see how the overseas markets closed today. the nation's biggest retailers reported modest gains last month. that brings us to the fourth in our special week-long series called "in focus: the american recovery." tonight we look at consumer spending and the pressures

keeping a lid on it. >> reporter: higher payroll taxes and rising gasoline prices continue to streak across the headlines with good reason. these head winds appear at the very least to be impacting how much consumers are buying. >> these things will take dollars out of consumer's pockets. it's disproportionate for low owners, and i think it's reasonable to expect some moderation in that consumer demographic going forward. >> reporter: walmart is certainly feeling the pressure, catering largely to lower-income consumers blamed a delay in tax refunds for its slow february sales start. >> it does put a lot more pressure on march, you know, february's a smaller spending month than march from a u.s. consumer's perspective. we'll be watching that very, very closely. >> reporter: consumer confidence rebounded in february, executives from target, abercrombie and fitch and lowe's are expressing concern about consumer uncertainty.

>> i don't think there's this new normal. obviously, if paychecks are lower, there is going to be some reduction, but i believe over time if that's the only factor, i think consumers are going to adjust and i think consumer spending is going to stabilize. >> reporter: higher payroll taxes aren't the only head wind. the average price for regular unleaded gasoline has increased 12% in just three months. according to barclay's analyst bob derble, a 10-cent increase at prices at the pump takes away an additional $110 from consumers' disposable income, or as much as a $13.8 billion drain on total consumer spending in other areas. because of the current pressures, it appears lower-income americans are on the sidelines of the american recovery, but then again american consumerism often prevails, even in times of economic hardship.

for "nightly business report," i'm courtney reagan. >> the spending habits of the american consumer is also important for u.s. auto makers. i talked recently with dan akerson and asked if consumers are still in the mood to buy cars. >> if you go back to the bottom of the economic crisis when consumer confidence was at decade-low levels, today consumer confidence is up, and, in fact, the average rate of purchase of cars, automobiles, crossovers, and trucks, in the u.s. in the '08-'09 time frame drooped down to 9 and 10 million units. it's currently at 15, 15 1/2, which is indicative, i think, of greater confidence. >> mr. akerson, as you know very well, consumers are coping with a lot of issues, skimpier paychecks, high prices at the pump, all that dysfunction in washington. at what point how much is too much before consumers just close

up their wallets? >> the dysfunction that you described, the inability to come to common ground and articulate a vision of how to proceed in our country, i think, creates a certain degree of uncertainty that if it continues, if we have these every 60 to 90-day crises, i think that will erode confidence. >> well, dealing with what's going on in washington is not much you can have control over, but looking at gm's own situation, i see that mark marketshare has slipped a bit in the u.s. what can you do about that? >> to give you an idea, 70% of our four brands, 70% of the models this year will either be refreshed or brand new, and that's representative of the fourth year since bankruptcy and $8 billion a year in new product development. and the launching of new models this year will completely revamp. we're going to go from having

the oldest portfolio in the industry to having one of the freshest portfolios in the industry by the end of this year. >> and we know china is a massive market for general motors, is that where you see most of your growth is going to come from? >> quite frankly, we are seeing similar growth patterns between both the u.s. and china, two biggest automotive markets in the world. we have the greatest market share in both markets. we're indexed and doing well in emerging markets like brazil, russia, and the middle east. so, it's not all gloom and doom. our biggest challenge is in europe, as many of our competition are experiencing the same difficulties we are. >> closer to home, we know that detroit is going through a financial emergency. what impact is that having on general motors and is there anything you can do to fix it? >> well, we try to be the good corporate citizen, but in a

perverse sort of way, i think what's happening in detroit is kind of inevitable and it's almost as healthy and difficult as it will be, not dissimilar to what general motors and chrysler had to go through. the city needs the restructure in order to kind of hit the reset button. i think the political leadership is a great mayor is understanding the challenges. >> akerson spoke to us from an energy conference in houston, and he says he expects gm to have half a million electric-type vehicles, cars, and trucks, on the road by 2017. and coming up, the threat to your cyber security. we're going to take a look at who's the most vulnerable to potential hacking. first, let's look where energy prices in treasuries finished today.

yesterday time warner announced it is spinning off the world's largest magazine publisher, a place where both susie and i used to work. i don't know about you, but i like holding a magazine or newspaper when i read one, no knock on tablets, but can old-fashioned papers and periodicals make money or even survive? john fort has more now on the future of the printed word. >> reporter: it's been rough going for print lately. media companies that once looked at combining newspapers and tv networks to the secret of growth and profitability have reversed course. the big new idea, carve off the print operations and let them fight for survival on their own. that's the plan at news corp., where rupert murdoch plans to separate from the tv and movie studios and now that's the plan at time warner, whichú

dollars. it's a similar story at news corp. and at the new york times company. there are some signs of hope, however, readers are paying for digital subscriptions at the new york times, a trend keeping the revenues from slipping in 2012. wall street journal and financial times also charge for content and the oracle of omaha himself, warren buffett. >> the newspaper, which is

indispensable has a much better future than the big metropolitan paper. >> reporter: on the national stage, the biggest danger for print publications these days might be facebook. since the social network opened up its ad network last year, it expanded supply for replacing ads and squashed ad prices in the process. today, mark zuckerberg pitched the redesign news feed as a personalized newspaper, something newspapers never quite figured out how to deliver. that means as these publishing companies struggle to make the switch to digital, they are going to be battling for eyeballs and ad dollars. for "nightly business report," i'm john fort. on capitol hill today, the issue of cyber security in the spotlight. homeland security secretary janet napolitano testifying on the growing threat of web-based government and corporate

espionage. trade secrets, power grids, infrastructure, and even defense systems are all at high risk of being hacked. >> and security experts warned the u.s. economy is in danger of being overlooked, small businesses. as scott cohn explains, no one is immune. >> reporter: at new york city's lincoln center, the focus is on stage, but behind the scenes, a network of computers controls everything. from the website, to the escalators, even the electronic signs on the plaza. chief technology officer robert tarlton is in charge. >> a network that spans 60 makers is very difficult to manage, because some of the network is outside. some of it is inside, which means it's open to the public. >> reporter: which is why he spends much of his time dealing with security. >> everybody gets hacked. anybody who tells you they haven't been hacked either isn't looking or they are lying to you. >> reporter: hackers have never

managed to do any damage here, never actually penetrating the network. he says keeping it that way is no simpler for lincoln center than it is for a multinational corporation. lincoln center only has about 500 employees and it's a non-profit organization, but for a hacker, it would be a rich target. very rich. millions of credit card transactions every year, wealthy patrons donating millions of dollars from their bank accounts. no wonder they take security so seriously. but hackers also look at small businesses as a gateway. >> hacker can penetrate the systems and applications of a small business that does business with the large business and use that small business to penetrate the larger business. >> reporter: why try to hack a big bank directly when you can get in through the ad agency trying to win the bank's business? the question is keeping security officials up at night at businesses big and small. for "nightly business report,"

i'm scott cohn. >> important issue. you know, tyler, one of the issues of resolving it is a lot of companies that have been hacked, there's a stigma about staying you've been hacked. >> i was speaking to the chairman of duke power not long ago and he says the one thing that keeps him awake at night above any other is the danger of a risk. >> serious problem. that's it for "nightly business report." we want to remind you this is the time of year your public television station seeks your support. >> have a great night. we'll see you back here tomorrow night. explore new worlds

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