this is nightly business report brought to you by -- under pressure as lines get longer. the pressure is on washington to find a fix. >> job security. americans feel safer in their jobs now, why? and which industries are putting out the help wanted sign.

whether you'll pay more -- more people making gripes about sequestration is finally sinking in. >> congress is hearing it from their constituents. there was an afternoon swoon in the markets. we have more on that in a minute. our top story. travelers are frustrated, airlines are angry, and some members of congress appear to have had enough. we're talking about the federal spending cuts that kicked in about a month ago. the sequester, that's starting to be felt by the traveling public so far. wait until the cut backs start to hit food safety inspection and long term employment, unemployment benefits and more. john harwood joins us with more on how lawmakers are looking to ease some of this pain. how are the negotiations proceeding, john?

>> members of congress have been buffeted by the complaints about air traffic delays, republicans and democrats alike, even if they expected them to happen. the administration transportation department said they would. they're now talking within the senate of a possibility of a proposal that would be voted on perhaps late tonight, perhaps tomorrow. that would reshuffle money within the faa in order to reduce the impact of the sequesters, reduce the flight delays, it would only impact that element of the sequester, not the over all budget cuts that you referred to, the house would be expected to follow suit quickly, members don't want this heat much longer. >> why are they deciding to just deal with the slight delay part instead of the whole thing? >> that is the most conspicuous complaint they're getting. as tyler alluded to, if in fact we see repercussions on these other areas. food safety defense department, which is the subject to the

highest percentage cuts. and huge dollar numbers. then you could get negotiations leading tore a larger solution, but i talked to one republican member of congress this afternoon, we're not close to that, we're drifting along right now waiting on the events. the event this week -- >> what would any deal look like. democrats suggested there be tax increases. would that be part of a deal, or is it much more quarantined than that? >> well, it would not be part of the deal, but they're talking about right now, it might pass this week to alleviate the flight delays. if we get more impacts. this sequester hits home in a way members of congress decide theyen cat stomach any more. that's when you get negotiations with the white house on a broader solution. and they continue to say a precondition for having negotiations to alleviate it is, we need more tax revenue, ween cat just do it with budget cuts

alone. >> what happens next, what would congress do next? >> congress could have a vote by the senate tonight. the senate's scheduled to be in recess next week, there's a premi premium, if they're going to do it this week on doing it this evening. the house could take it up tomorrow. members would go home in the senate, hear from their constituents and figure out whether or not there are broader impacts they need to address. one triggering mechanism that will come in the summer, is that the debt limit will need to be raised again. that could be a moment for a bro broader issue on the sequestration. >> thank you, john. nowhere are those sequester cuts being felt more harshly right now than at the nation's airport. thousands of flights have been delayed this week. after federal aviation officials began implementing furloughs for some of its 15,000 air traffic

controllers. the delays have ranged from 30 minutes to several hours. leaving already frustrated travelers fed up, and airplanes worried about how these delays could impact their profits. bill lebeau has more on the turbulence from those furloughs and how airlines are navigating through all this. >> how frustrating is flying right now? >> go to any airport and ask those who are waiting and waiting and waiting. >> of course it's frustrating. you know, any time that you have to sit and wait, when you don't plan on doing, is never fun. >> i don't love it, but it's a means to an end. >> i didn't expect the delay, when i did get a delay, it was probably due to sequester. >> furloughing 1500 flight controllers has resulted in more than 3,000 flights being delayed this week. today jeff smizik said these delays are like pop-up thunderstorms. they're hard to plan for in advance. he and other airline executives are worried. if sequester delays drag on,

some travelers may decide they've had enough. >> i think if you're in a congested area like new york or chicago, it could affect you, i think what might happen,people will say, i'm going to put off the travel until this nonsense is over. >> from rising fees for checked bags to the slow and cumbersome process of going through security, to the changing rules that will make it tougher to collect and cash in frequent flyer miles, the allure of flying has faded. airlines are more profitable than they've been in more than a decade. this week, delta, usairways, alaska, jet blue and southwest all have profitable first quarters in part because they didn't pay as much for jet fuel. >> fuel prices have been a real roller coaster this year. right now, they're moderate, hedged for the rest of the year. >> as the frustration with flying grows, so do airline profits. an industry on its knees just a few years ago is now soaring,

don't tell the travelers these are good times in the sky. phil lebeau, nightly business report, chicago. >> the frustrations about the esr cuts have the chief executives thinking about their spending cuts and what damage they may do to the overall economy. here's what choice hotels and gulf oil had to say on the spending cuts and the responsibility of lawmakers to change things for the better. >> the american people pay all kinds of taxes, aviation taxes that go directly to fund the faa. we pay more in taxes than we get in services from the faa. so, perhaps, if we're going to have a furlough of the services, maybe we ought to have a furlough in the taxes that the american people pay also. >> you have a situation with a manufactured crisis, where they are playing games at the expense of what is a fragile economy.

we're talking about even based on the faa's numbers, you're talking about potentially $9.3 billion of loss economics not including the airlines. 1.4 billion in revenues, and 83,000 jobs just based on what they're saying today. >> production continues very, very strong with the dollar relatively strong. imports are well priced to come in. so i think we have a good chance, if we don't screw it up from a government perspective to see gasoline prices go below $3 by labor day. >> josh fineman joins us now with more on how the budget cuts will impact the u.s. economy. he's chief economist at db advisers. you heard all of our reports, can you pull it together for us. how much pain is sequestration going to have on the economy? can you put a number on it? >> sure, it's not just sequestration. it has to be put in the context of the tax increases at the beginning of the year. so putting that all together

is -- it's a substantial fiscal tightening, probably going to shave one to one and a half percentage points off of gdp growth this year from what it would be. it's both. the tax hike and the sequestration spending cuts. >> if that is the case, why are stocks going up and up and up? >> all the parts of the economy are doing well, i mean, the healing of the -- what i call the post bubble head winds, the houses overhang, all the things that have kept this recovery pretty dormant, those things are dimini diminishing, as they do, the economy is picking up momentum. we're throwing this new monkey wrench at it, which is the fiscal tightening, it's a bit of a tug of war right now, and the battle is joined. i think ultimately the healing forces will win out. we need to get past this fiscal drag first. >> we're hearing from a lot of analysts, they're saying by next earnings season, when ceos are

reporting in the summer months. they're going to be blaming sequestration for weak earnings. is that just an excuse or does it have that much of an impact? >> it will be a little of both. first quarter growth is going to look pretty strong. we'll get our first read on that tomorrow. somewhere in the vicinity of 3%. second quarter growth is going to look weaker than that. some of that will be blamed on sequestration and tax hikes. some of that is legitimate. i think corporations will look to that too. as an explanation for why maybe profit growth moderates a bit. >> what about the consumer? what are american spenders doing with their money and have you seen in the numbers real confirmation that the payroll tax cut is impacting spending in any measurable way? >> at the beginning of the year it looked like spending was holding up well, and people were saying, maybe the payroll tax hike isn't having an impact.

there have been skeptics that look a little less strong. when the dust settles we'll see that the combination of the tax hike and the sequestration spending cuts does have an adverse effect on the economy. does put a damper on things and delays the economy shifting into that higher gear. but i think ultimately the economy will get there. >> real quickly, you mentioned a moment ago tomorrow we'll get our first read on economic growth. you said it's going to be a strong one. what are you predicting for that, and look ahead, what's your forecast for second quarter. will it also be strong? >> probably around 3% or so in the first quarter. probably materially weaker than that in the second quarter. part of it is an inventory build in the first quarter that won't likely be repeated in q 2. and part of it is the fiscal drag is going to impact more in the second quarter than in the first. >> thanks for that information about. >> josh fineman chief economist

at db advisers. we were just talking a few months ago, the word sequester wasn't in the american vocabulary, now everyone's talking about it. >> everyone knows it. you see the companies that are reporting it. more and more of them are being cautious. you have to figure that the spending cuts and the payroll tax hike is one of the reasons they're being cautious. >> we're going to hear more about it. >> even the parks and restoration are complaining already. >> it's a slow bill. but when it hits it will hit. >> the major averages made solid gains early on. following a decline of 16,000. they fell to a near 5-year low. it was another round of strong earnings reports before the bell from the likes of ex-on mobile, harley-davidson and hershey. the dow finished just 24 points higher, the nasdaq was up 20 and

the s&p 500 tacked on 6. in chicago, a computer software glitch delayed the opening of the board of options exchange for more than three hours today. that held up options trading and hedging strategies used by big portfolio managers. the cboe has been careful to state that the problem was resolved and is not the problem of a cyber attack or any outside influence. coming up, as job market confidence rebounds, the head of a leading employment firm tells us which industries are hiring and where. first, a look at how the international markets finished today.

the george w. bush presidential center had its ceremonial opening today. president obama and all four former living presidents in attendance. the site covering the major milestones of the bush presidency. including 9/11 and the financial crisis. there's other things for people to parse there, millions of e-mails, about a billion pages of what the library called electronic records will be on display, offering an indepth look at the eight years of the bush presidency through its internet correspondence.

e-mail's only been around for about 30 years. the amount of e-mail during the bush years far exceeds the four prio administrations. bush's record will be hard to beat. americans are feeling more confident about the job market. a new survey shows americans feel they could find a new job if necessary. the survey conducted by a research organization at the university of chicago found that 54% said it would be somewhat or very easy to find a job if their lost theirs. as layoffs declined, fewer people fear losing their job. that's down from 16% two years ago. our next guest says jobs growth is being propped up artificially. he's ceo of a leading employment firm. you heard the report that suzie just had about confidence in job security rising. are americans justified in feeling more confident about their jobs?

>> well, i would say that it is improved. but it's not improving. and, you know, i think there are a lot of americans that are hurting, if you're one of the air traffic controllers, certainly, you're not better off today. i spent four hours on monday at los angeles international airport. and ended up taking the flight. it kept getting pushed back and pushed back. this is a nike swoosh, unfortunately the swoosh part has tapered off. >> i thought it was interesting in the survey, that it depends on who you are. if you have a college degree, a little more optimistic, if you have a high school degree or less education, not so optimistic. what are you seeing in terms of the types of people looking for jobs. what's been your experience? >> that's exactly right. that's the way out for this country. education determines a workers earning for life. generally speaking, the more education you have, the better your chances are moving between industries and jobs. we're certainly seeing that

today. >> you say that among the things that are affecting job growth are two factors. one low interest rates and the other, the money that has been pumped into the economy through qe of the money that's being pumped in by the federal reserve. you would think the job growth would seem rather artificial. what would it take to transition from what you describe as artificial job growth to more enduring real job growth. >> well, look, we're all sitting around the punch bowl and it's spiked. spiked with incredibly low interest rates. trying to go out there and get a loan, you're a small company, it's difficult to be able to do that. and if you're a ceo today, you're going to be cautious. you are going to be -- you're not going to hire then innovate, you're going to innovate and then hire. look at the big companies that have reported over the last couple weeks. the top line is not growing, and people are squeezing profits out of the bottom line, and there's this real fight for growth

today. and so what has to change, the consumer has to come back and we have to export america to other places. >> let's talk a little bit about where the jobs are, always hear that health care is recession proof, so lots of jobs in health care, we know that. what other areas are we seeing job growth? >> oil is big, and it's going to be big over the next couple decades. >> social media and this fight to go out and drive borderless consumption, you know, the cell things through the internet is huge. in the technology area, social media area, as you said, health services, it's 20% of its economy, in a few years, and oil, those are all really hot right now. >> are we in some ways the victim of our own technology? in other words, we're able to do things so much more efficiently. i think of a toy factory i visited not long ago, sending

the jobs overseas. now because of robotics and other things, they can bring the jobs back, there's just fewer of them. >> we're totally a victim of our own success. i remember looking at this tv wrist watch in the '60s. google eyeglasses where you don't have to communicate. that's absolutely right. we're in this two decade transition, from the heartland middle america manufacturing economy to this real innovative service based economy, and that's what we're going to go through for the rest of this decade for sure. >> thank you very much for being with us. gary burnisson is ceo. after the market closed, amazon reported profits of 18 cents a share. more than double what wall street was expecting. sales jumped 22%. they came in below estimates. amazon gave a lower than expected forecast for revenue and earnings for the current

quarter. shares were up more than 2% in the regular session to $274 after hours. the stock rose on the news then fell off. starbucks after the bell and beating estimates on profit while reporting that revenue fell below what analysts anticipated. same store sales were up 6% world wide. in the u.s., howard schultz called it a stunning quarter. starbucks issued current quarter guidance a bit shy of expectations. take a look at shares of starbucks up more than 1% at the close. they lost a little ground after the report was released. verizon touched a new 52 week high after a reuters report that it has hired advisers to repair a $100 billion bid to take full control of verizon wireless. verizon owns 55% of verizon wireless. votophone owns the rest. investors bought up both stocks.

verizon jumped two and a half% to $53. >> eqt, a natural gas producer and distributor in the appalachian area, reported well above expected earnings for this quarter. eqt did fall back slightly but gained almost 8% on the day. billionaire investor george soros is taking a passive stake in jcpenney. he has 17 million shares. jcpenney has no comment on the soros stake. still ahead on the program, a new report tells us whether we'll soon be paying more at the grocery store. but first, how commodities, treasuries and currencies fared today.

if you think you've been paying more for your groceries lately, you are right, the rise in food prices this year won't be as high as earlier forecast. jackie deangelis tells us which foods we'll be paying more for, which may be cheaper and why. >> it's still cold across the plains, but the latest usda forecast is a little warmer. with the overall food costs rising 3% this year, slightly

less than thought before, but slightly more than the 2% increase in 2012. a family spent $197 a week on food for a family four. a year later, topping $200 a week. one big change, fruit and vegetable prices dropped slightly last year. food could be even more expensive if the weather doesn't improve across the nation's heartland. last year's drought followed by unusually cold temperatures this spring are impacting both the winter and spring wheat crops. winter wheat accounts for 72% of u.s. wheat production. farmers are expecting to lose about a quarter of this year's crop. you may pay more for baked goods and cereals as feed prices rise. >> it does not look good. we'll go up another upper level trough as we head into next week. that could create rain, more snow, more cold weather.

not good news for the planters. >> spring planting usually begins in mid to late april. dry, cold conditions in the southern plains and a january like snow pack in the dakotas are threatening to limit this year's crops. >> we're really going to flip the pattern by june to a much hotter, much dryer pattern into the summer. >> kansas city wheat futures prices have been climbing this month. after hitting a nine-month low on april first. a pop resulting from the continuing snap and crackle that farmers are dealing with. >> jackie was talking about weather, and we know about these midwest storms that have been difficult for farmers, prices will be going up. i think especially in restaurants, when you go out of your home, you're not shopping in the grocery store. >> a forecast that the usda had many that flooding may get worse as the snow pack melts. >> brief, higher prices. speaking of prices, high school

prom season is just about here, and even though many americans continue to try to reign in spending this annual right of spring continues to resemble more of a teenaged spends spree. the average family spends $1,139 on the prom last year, that's double from five years ago. the money isn't just for the dress and the corsage and tickets. but also now, hair, nails, limos, hotels and other extras like after parties. kids paid about $400 more on average in the northeast and a low of around $700 in the midwest. visa says tyler get ready for this, mom and dad pay for most of us. >> i remember my prom tux, oh, boy was it awful. >> i want to see a picture. >> i'll try to find one. >> thanks for joining us. we hope to see you back here tomorrow 37.

a kqed television production it's sort of like old fisherman's wharf. it reminds me of old san francisco. and you'd be a little bit like jean valjean, with the teeth, whatever. and worth the calories, the cholesterol, and the heart attack you might have. it's like an adventure, you know. you gotta put on your miner's helmet. it reminds me of oatmeal with a touch of wet dog. i did.