hey, there. i'm stephanie rhule, live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it's friday, december 3rd and we start this morning with breaking economic news. the november jobs report is out and it's a lot less than analysts expected, 210,000 jobs were added last month. that's a very big miss. but remember we have seen a ton of revisions on these reports. meaning updates to those numbers after the original report. and over the last few months they have been revised up big

time. despite this miss, unemployment fell to 4.2%. president biden set to speak about all of this in about an hour from now. it begs the question where are we on the covid economic recovery? i'll ask marty walsh later this hour. do not forget we are still dealing with supply chain issues. even though they're improving and americans right now are paying up, a lot of them say big time, with nearly half of u.s. households saying the higher prices are causing serious hardship at home. the new omicron covid variant could throw a curveball at us with five states reporting casing and that number is certain to go up. we'll add that. the perfect team to break it down starting with mike memoli at the white house. steve liesman. karen kimbrough is the linked in chief economy. and douglas holtz akin.

dr. liesman i have to go to you first. september jobs report was 194,000 huge miss and then it was revised to 379,000 almost double that number. do you think that's what could be happening here? >> yeah. thank you for conferring the doctorate on me on television, send the plaque, i'll give you an address. yeah, the story is that this payroll number has been revised consistently upward. i'm not sure what's going on at the bls. it's an important issue. if there are two separate surveys one is reported the payroll number reported by businesses. the other is a survey of workers. that showed more than a million people were employed -- additional million people were employed in the month. so that's a big, big difference between the two. i usually side with the payroll report, but this time around, i think the evidence, stephanie is

that there's a lot of people being hired right now. a lot of employers looking for workers. there's a lot of other data that suggests the job market is strong. so i'm not a believer this number is quite this weak. it may be weak, but not as weak as 210. i expect it to be revised higher. >> karen you give it to us. how does it track from the workers' perspective. >> there's no better time to be looking for and finding a job. at on our platform at linked in we're seeing hiring rates above covid levels. we've had the strongest month on record since the pandemic began of people getting hired and getting hired in a shorter amount of time looking at fewer jobs. it's a rosy outlook despite the headline number. >> doug, can you explain that? say this number appears to be off and will be revised later. why is it off? why does it keep happening?

i would think the bls would get this right! >> as steve said, the conventional wisdom is the payroll survey is the more reliable. if you look at the numbers that's where you should side. we have seen the pattern over the course of the past six months. i think there's a lot to be concerned about in the seasonal adjustment as we go through the pandemic. things just aren't happening on the regular schedule. and i think part of it comes from that. there may be something else, i'm not sure. this is is a puzzling report in a lot of ways. a difference in the household survey, strong, and the payroll survey. but even inside the payroll survey. if you look at the index of aggregate payroll, that's rising at over 9% annual rate. that's very strong labor demand. but we need hours. that's rising by almost 6%. so they just didn't hire anyone.

why? i don't know. but clearly this isn't evidence that employers aren't looking for labor, they're looking and willing to pay for it. >> if you start your own business, this isn't factored in. we are seeing the great resignation and we are seeing a huge amount of business started. do you think that's factoring in here. >> those people who start their own businesses shows up in the other household report and we see that happening quite a bit here. i'm looking for the number, can't find it on the fly here, stephanie, but that is a big factor. the other thing out there, there's been a lot of surveys of the american public and they show that the afternoon american thinks jobs are easy to find now, jobs are plentiful right now. there's a lot of other data that suggests this is a strong jobs market. one of the issues out there, two things real quick. everybody has had a lousy time for anything going on in the

u.s. economy in the pandemic, jobs inflation, growth, they've been way off and terrible on it. the other thing that's happened, it's difficult for the bean counters to get out and do their bean counting in a way that's made difficult by the pandemic. so i think that's one of the reasons why you have some of the revisions. >> i want to make all of you economists feel a little bit better, you're not alone. pollsters have clearly been getting elections wrong the last few years as well. the white house, this number is less than we thought. but this is a very strong labor market, this is a good time for workers and the president just saw the bipartisan infrastructure bill be signed into law, yet his poll numbers are still under water. is this all about inflation? >> reporter: yeah. we're going to hear a number of things from the president when he speaks to the country in over an hour. the first is what you're talking about in terms of the top line number. the white house certainly agrees

with the questions that are being raised about it. this is a president that likes to get into the weeds more than presidents do when talking about economic data. so i think he'll highlight some of the other data points that do show a strong jobs recovery going on. we'll see the president continuing to hit the road to talk about the big accomplishment of the bipartisan infrastructure law. we saw him in minnesota this week, the vice president and transportation secretary yesterday in charlotte. this is part of what the white house insists it's continuing to be a nationwide campaign to tout the law. i asked the white house press secretary yesterday would the tour continue with the omicron variant? she said yes. we'll see the president on the road again next week. you're seeing an effort on the part of the white house and the president specifically to sharpen the contrast with republicans. you saw it with the supply chain a few days ago, he talked about it in his build back better agenda saying it's easy to complain about a problem but

takes more to do something about it and pointed to republican opposition, tying it to questions about inflation. he said the biggest thing you can do for the american people is vote for the big back better agenda. we can't separate what's happening from what the president discussed yesterday, because of his plan to deal with the omicron and the winter surge we're expecting in coronavirus cases. the tools at our disposal we didn't have a year ago when we were still talking about potential lockdowns that are going to keep the economy open and that's something the president is going to stress today also as well. >> take us inside linked in, data, karen. do you have any information to show whether or not this new covid variant is going to be impacting jobs? >> it's too early to tell. we're not seeing it. in the past every time we have seen a new variant come on, it's had an impact in terms of slowing down hiring, dampening interest by job seekers and employers. but each time that a variant has

come up or we've had a subsequent wave, the impact has been a little bit less. it's almost as if we're learning to be a little bit more resilient to every shock. so i'm not optimistic. but i'm hopeful that we're still learning and this won't be a game changer. but it's too early to tell. >> doug, fed chair powell said he may be raising interest rates to cool inflation. he said it could put some risk to the labor market. what's your take? >> i think the fed is correctly focussing more on inflation. but that doesn't mean they're eager to raise rates. especially early in 2022. you're going to see them first, you know, taper the purchases down to zero. those purchases are stimulus to the economy. so they're really just taking away some stimulus. that's appropriate at this point. the economy doesn't need it. and then they'll find out of the inflation turned out to be short

lived and then make rates. >> buying bonds. the only people that helps are bond funds. >> steve, take out the crystal ball, given everything we talked about, jobs, the variant, fed, inflation, how do you think the end of the year is going to look? steve? >> i think it's going to be okay. can you hear me there, stephanie? the -- i think that inflation is going to work itself out over the next six months or so. the fed is going to raise interest rates. it's not going to be the end of the world to have higher interest rates. and i think we'll be learning to live with this covid as an endemic disease not a pandemic anymore. i think that's what i hope is going to happen with omicron here. and then it becomes part of the process of learning to live with it. people come back to work because they're less scared over time. >> a reminder 1%, 2% interest rates, that's okay. thank you all so much. we'll leave it there.

coming up next, five states reporting cases of the new covid variant. that could be expanded as at-home testing is going to be the key to keeping this new variant under control. later, alec baldwin speaks out saying he's not responsible for the deadly shooting on the set of his film "rust." >> do you feel guilt? >> no. no. someone is responsible for what happened, and i can't say who that is, but i know it's not me. (vo) t-mobile for business helps small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network. plus, we give you $200 in facebook ads on us!

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we're following new covid developments this morning, cases of the omicron variant confirmed in five states. the news comes after president biden revealed his winter covid strategy appealing to americans to get their boosters and/or vaccine shots and require private insurers to cover the cost of at-home covid tests.

starting december 6th all international travelers will be required to test negative within a day of their departure to the united states. the president stressing no new lockdowns or shutdowns at the current time. joining us to discuss this new information that you need to know, alisyn barber in illinois, lindsey risener, and dr. celine gounder. doctor, is this the covid that gives you the sniffles or sends you to the hospital? >> we don't have the answer to that. i think people are hopeful, based on a handful of cases most of them in young healthy people with mild symptoms they are extrapolaing that omicron may not be so serious, so virulent but we don't know we need more data to assess whether or not that is the case. >> lindsey, five cases have been

identified here in new york. what are state officials doing in response and how did they identify them? >> reporter: stephanie, we know there's a lot of contact tracing going on and a lot of sequencing going on right now. but still that sample of sequencing is pretty small when you consider that new york just hit about more than 11,000 positive coronavirus cases. that's the most since we've seen since the second wave in january, still not close to the 19,000 single day cases we saw in april of 2020. i want to talk about some of the positive cases. the first one is a 67-year-old woman out of suffolk county, long island, she travelled to south africa, became symptomatic when she came back. had mild symptoms, a headache and a cough. we know there was a vaccination system, don't know how many shots and if she was boosted. two cases in brooklyn and one in one of the five boroughs.

one known vaccination status, believed to have travelled recently. the governor and mayor saying this isn't cause for alarm, similar to what an epidemiologist i spoke with said. let's listen to what she said. >> new york city is a hub for people coming from all over the world, so it was a matter of time before it's identified in someone who's had contact with someone else who has omicron. it's a matter of time because, you know, until somebody gets symptoms and they get tested and the specimens get tested in the lab and then and only then we can identify if it's an omicron variant or not. >> reporter: i'm at javits center this is where a convention was held from november 19th to the 21st. we know a minnesota man travelled here for the convention, went back to minnesota experienced mild symptoms he was fully vaccinated, has since recovered, there's a lot of contact tracing

going on for the thousands at this event and everybody here is urged to get tested, stephanie. >> you got access to the lab of one of the largest at-home covid test manufacturers. what did you learn? >> reporter: yeah, i'm actually in one of abbott's labs right now, hence my slightly goofy get up here. this lab, these machines they're running covid samples looking for information on antibodies. other labs are running letters to try to compare variants and make sure their tests will detect them. as families prepare to head home for the holidays they're looking for options for test kits like this to get a test before they head to grandma's house to make sure they're okay. and with all the variations of this omicron variant you have to wonder will these at home over the counter test kits still

work. the answer today seems to be yes. so how does a company like abbott know? we came here because we wanted to see how they got to yes. the main way they did it is they used omicron sequence, it's literally a code with crazy amounts of letters. commuters run that code, compare it to other variants and make sure their test will still detect it. listen. was there a moment where you were nervous and unsure if your test would work for this new variant? >> we always have a sense of urgency any time we're looking at a sequence to understand whether it could impact our test. so as i looked through the data, it was kind of like i was holding my breath as i was looking through it. and then when i got to the end and saw through all of the sections of our targets that we have conservation, it was a breath of fresh air to be like

this is okay. we can be confident in results of our tests. >> reporter: so the fda has approved rapid over the counter at home test kits from ten different companies. we reached out to all of those companies to ask whether or not they've been able to run a sequence and if they're confident their kits will still work with the new variant. we heard back from six of the companies. i'll read you their names and also the names of their test kit. abbott now. access care start. acon flow flex. quitle quick view, e human and bd vary ter. all of those companies say they have run the sequence and their tests do not miss it. abbott and access bio said they've run their kits with a physical sample of this variant. if we can quickly look at a covid virus particular with me. the red spikes you see on the

outside, that is where most of omicron's mutations occurred. my brain works by pretending everything is food. pretend you see chocolate and there's a peanut inside of that. the peanut is what most of the rapid tests use to detect whether or not covid is in it. the peanut did not have a lot of mutations, the mutations are in the chocolate. for now everyone is confident their tests can pick up this variant as well as the other ones before. >> the most important news flash, allison barber identifies everything as food. these at-home tests, biden is expanding them as part of the winter strategy, but i have to be honest what has taken so long? those tests that allison showed i have some of them at my house, i spent $200 to buy them. that's a lot of money, when you need them chances are your

pharmacy may not have them. why are we so far behind in access to testing in this country? >> part of that relates to the demand being inconsistent. abbott disposed of a number of tests over the summer because there wasn't the consumer demand. so they're not going to ramp up manufacturing unless they think there is stable demand. i think it's important here to reference something your guest said in the last hour. the very last comment, which is we need to learn to live with covid. i find that comment to be really problematic. this idea that we need to adapt to death, to a thousand americans dying to covid every day, those are not acceptable losses. we means all of us, not just the individual, including vulnerable populations, live means stay alive, not die. and that means layering all of these interventions, including vaccination, masking while indoors in public places. optimizing the use of

ventilation, and also making use of the rapid tests. i think the biden administration's move to make rapid tests more available is a laudable one but asking people to file for insurance reimbursement is a hassle for most people. some of the tests will be made available for free through community health centers and food banks. i think this should have been mailed or a made available to every family without the logistical complications of filing for insurance. >> dr. gounder, last question to you, this is about dropping the hammer on restrictions. other countries are inincreasing their restrictions. in germany unvaccinated people did not go to nonessential stores, can't go to recreational events, should the u.s. be doing the same? >> i think we learned a lot since march of 2020. i don't think we need to go back to strict lockdowns but i think we need to be close to --

>> it wouldn't be lockdowns for everyone. it would be exclusions for the unvaccinated. i'm going to the movies. >> you know, again, so with respect to imposing something specifically on unvaccinated people, you would need a vaccine verification system. americans have been very resis tent to that kind of system. you had the republicans who painted that as the idea of vaccine passports, which they should not be. because passports are a form of identification. but absent a system like that you're asking the ticket seller, waitress at a restaurant to do that kind of vaccine verification. here in new york city you've seen that lead to confrontations with guests. you know, i'm not sure that that's a fair ask of people who are working on the front lines. >> that is a great point. alisyn, lindsey, dr. gounder, thank you for joining us this morning. al zip, be sure not to eat anything in the lab.

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with less than 27 hours to

go, the senate last night passed a government funding bill that will prevent a government shutdown, good news for all. the funding was able to get past even as some republicans threatened to shutdown the government over president biden's vaccine mandate for workers. crazy but true. joining me to discuss capital hill correspondent garrett haake and axios reporter hans nichols. how did we get to the result last night. >> reporter: it was held up by a group of senate republicans who wanted to deforce the vaccine mandates. they're not even in place right now. they were pushing for this all day. and when it came about time for the house to pass it and sent it to the senate last night. democrats looked and realized they were short on republicans. republicans went home for the weekend. they said have your vote,

knowing it would be defeated and we moved on. the government funded. but another show down vote ahead next week on that same issue about defunding vaccine mandates. this is clearly an issue the republicans want to talk about. but i think the broader group was talked into not talking about it through a government shutdown that neither set of party leaders wanted anything to do with. >> but it's not over. >> reporter: no. >> let's talk about the busy december democrats are looking at. trying to avoid the u.s. hitting the borrowing limit. they want to pass the build back better bill. and dis31st is the deadline to pass defense spending. how are we getting this done? any, some? >> some i think is probably the most likely outcome here. lifting the debt ceiling is mandatory. the government has never defaulted. all the party officials, even the rank and file say they will not allow it to happen. the how remains a mystery but unlike the last time we were in talks about this, the

temperature is lower, but that's the most critical deadline. the build back better vote, which you see the congressional leadership wants to have done by christmas and the ndaa aren't hard deadlines, although the national defense bill, ndaa, has been passed on a bipartisan basis for decades it would be embarrassing for this crop of congressional leaders to fail to do so. but the build back better in particular is a matter of getting all the ducks in the a row and whether it slips into the new year, which i think is entirely possible. it'll be a task that falls to chuck schumer, who is going to have an unpleasant december ahead of him. >> hold on a second, build back better is a big priority for democrats. but when biden looks at his poll numbers dropping are any dropping because build back better hasn't passed? >> not if you ask the white house, right. the white house sees the poll numbers working in tandem with covid, a little bit on the inflation front. but garrett's broader point that

schumer is going to have a tough december still stands. the white house can punt on all these things with the exception of the debt celling. that's a hard, firm, fast deadline. and the jet fumes point garrett made is going to hold. so my advice is take the next 11 days off, come back the 14th. >> reporter: can you endorse that up the chain, stephanie? >> yes. garrett haake, the next 14 days. can you tell us hans what is that behind you, what's the animals on your man tell? >> it is a mural. if i had a long time to explain it to you, i would, but i'm not sure you would explain the symbolism. back to you. >> wow. >> everyone on my family is there. >> i'm seeing a skunk, owl, fox, bunny, which one are you?

>> for viewers to decide. you're in my living room, you're in my family home. you can guess, we can -- let's throw it to garrett, if garrett gets it right, i'll give you the next two weeks off. >> is there an owl. i don't know. no. i think you're the fox. what does the fox say, hans? >> i'm more of a hedge hog i'll take the point. >> we're going to leave it there. owls, my high school mascot and my favorite animal. garrett haake, hans nichols we're going to leave it there because we have a lot more to cover. some very serious news. up next, 60 michigan schools have been closed after a wave of copycat threats following tuesday's deadly shooting in oxford. we just found out that prosecutors have announced a press conference at noon eastern today. we'll tell you what that's all

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now to the latest on the aftermath of the school shooting in oxford, michigan that left four students dead. today authorities are expecting to make a decision on whether or not they will charge the parents of the shooter. on thursday, a prosecutor criticized the parents saying their actions were, quote, far beyond negligence. megan fitzgerald is on the ground in michigan. what more do we know about the parents and the gun, megan? >> reporter: steph, i can tell you that the oakland county prosecutor has been very candid about the importance of what she called responsible gun ownership and keeping guns out of the hands of those who could do potential harm. she's been hinting the past several days that it's possible the parents of this 15-year-old suspect could be charged. just been within the last hour we're learning her decision will likely be announced at noon. this morning authorities say they are weighing potential

charges of 15-year-old ethan crumbly. >> in an abstract hypothetical if they gave the weapon to this person, it's illegal for someone his age to possess or carry a handgun. so if they participated in that, that's clearly a crime. >> reporter: authorities say the weapon used in the attack was purchased legally by the suspect's father four days before the shooting. investigators are trying to figure out how the 15-year-old got the gun. the prosecutor set to make an announcement about charges friday. >> you have a right to possess a gun, but with it comes responsibility. allowing it in the hands of somebody that shows signs that they may hurt somebody is not okay and those people should be held accountable. >> the parents have not made any public statements. and nbc news has not been able to contact them. two different teachers raised concerns about the suspect's behavior. the school spoke with the teen the day before the shooting and

alerted the parents via voice mail and email, they had a face-to-face meeting at the school the next day, hours before the incident. the sheriff saying authorities were not informed. >> we were not informed before the shooting. >> the school superintendent releasing a recorded statement thursday. >> there's been a lot of talk about the student who was apprehended, that he was, you know, called up to the office and all of that kind of stuff. no discipline was warranted. >> reporter: but shard saying journal entries and videos made by the suspect and found by investigators indicate his alleged actions appear to be premeditated. >> without question it was something that was planned and anticipated and chilling in the way it was articulated to happen. >> megan, after all of that, while most of us are here just devastated for these families, more than 60 schools in michigan

had to close, not because they were in mourning, they had to close because now there is a wave of copycat threats. what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: yes, steph. you know, that long list continues to grow this morning. even more school districts across the state of michigan saying they've closed their doors until monday after hundreds of threats have been pouring in throughout the week in light of the attack we saw at oxford high school. now the county sheriff here, the oakland county sheriff, saying that so far none of those threats have been credible. but it's putting a lot of people on edge here, especially in light of what we saw just days ago, steph. >> this is such a devastating story. megan, thank you. and for all of us, it is a moment to think of those families and also think about our own lives. i have had a really hard parenting week that involved a lot of teenage shouting and then i think about those parents whose four kids put their backpacks on and went to school

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just pure artistry. developing this morning, alec baldwin describing the moment that led up to the deadly shooting on the set of his film "rust." in the first formal interview since the tragedy, the actor insisting he's not responsible for the accident. miguel almaguer has more. >> reporter: alec baldwin says he's speaking out because he wants to clear up some misconceptions about what happened on the day at "rust." he also said he did not pull the trigger and he doesn't think he'll face criminal charges. >> i used to love to make movies. i did. >> reporter: emotional and at times defiant. >> i feel that someone is responsible for what happened, and i can't say who that is, but i know it's not me. >> reporter: alec baldwin telling abc news his version of

how cinematographer halyna hutchins was shot and killed with a colt 45 revolver he was holding while rehearsing a scene like this. the actor said he pulled back the hammer but didn't fully dock the weapon. >> i go how about that, does that work? do you see that? yeah, that's good. i let go of the hammer, bang the gun goes off. >> reporter: baldwin insisting he never pulled the trigger. >> everyone is horrified, they're shocked. it's loud. the gun was supposed to be empty. >> reporter: baldwin says he's grieving for halyna hutchins and her family. >> this boy doesn't have a mother anymore. and there's nothing we can do to bring her back. she was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with and liked by everyone who worked with and admired. >> reporter: attorneys for the

film's armorer, hannah gutierrez reed recently telling savannah they believe someone deliberately sabotaged the set by mixing live ammunition into a box labeled dummy rounds. >> the person who put the live rounds in the box of dummy rounds had to have the purpose of sabotaging this set. there's no other reason you would do that. that you would mix that live round in with a dummy round. >> reporter: it's a claim baldwin says he doesn't believe. >> that's an enormous charge to make that someone came in and did something. for what purpose? what was their motive doing that if somebody did that? it's overwhelmingly likely it was an accident. >> reporter: just hours before the deadly shooting members of the film's camera crew had walked off the set citing poor working conditions and safety concerns. but baldwin telling abc news he had no knowledge of any serious issues on the set and believed the filming on "rust" was going well. >> and so help me god.

i sat on that pew right before they called lunch and i said this movie has made me love making movies again. baldwin also pushing back against criticism he should have checked the gun even after told director dave halls. >> the actor's responsibility is to do what the prop armorer tells them to do. >> reporter: and when asked if he feels guilt, as well as grief, baldwin said "no". >> honest to god, if i felt that i was responsible, i might have killed myself if i thought i was responsible. and i don't say that lightly. >> alec baldwin says he does have plans to shoot a movie in january. still, he fears because of what happened here, he worries his career may be over. stephanie, back to you. >> reporter: miguel, thank you. complicated story. up next, in a few minutes, president biden's scheduled to respond to today's jobs numbers. but first, we'll be speaking to labor secretary, marty walsh,

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that's why, in difficult times, we provided one hundred and fifty million meals to feeding america. and now through the subaru share the love event, we're helping even more. by the end of this year, subaru will have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity. this is what it means to be more than a car company. this is what it means to be subaru. happening now, the ghislaine maxwell sex abuse trial resuming just moments ago in a new york city courtroom. a day after former employee of jeffrey epstein testified that he saw young women at epstein's palm beach estate, hundreds and hundreds of times. and among them were two women

who have accused epstein of sexually abusing them as teenagers. tom winter has the latest outside the courthouse. tom, what's going on? >> reporter: steph, good morning. juan alesssi, the man who managed jeffrey epstein's mansion with the pools and boats will be back on the stand today. he'll be up for cross-examination. one thing that could come up was something he talked about yesterday, which is an incident that happened after he left working for jeffrey epstein, when he went back to the house, broke in, and took several hundred thousand dollars in cash from his office. epstein confronted him about it, went to the police, but no charges were filed and he agreed to pay epstein back for what happened. he called it a very difficult mistake in a very difficult time of his life. we should expect to hear more about that today. but what we heard yesterday was a lot of detail, new documents, including a 60-page manual about what alessi and his wife, who he

eventually had to hire because he was so busy working for epstein, to set up his house for wherever epstein would come to visit. specific types of sheets, specific types of food, how he was to address epstein, not to have eye contact with him, only respond to questions that he raised. a lot of incredible detail, including detail that we heard that seemed to match some of the testimony we heard earlier this week about the first victim called in this case, the first alleged victim, that's jane. what age she was, her description, her looks, and he went into details about the types of thing he would find after jeffrey epstein would find after he had one of his quote, massages, that could include sex toys, and the things found in the massage room, and the phone message system that he would have, as well as, but it hasn't been admitted into evidence yet, the jeffrey epstein black book. he said in court yesterday that he believed that this first victim, jane, her contact information was included in there under "massages." so the judge hasn't allowed that evidence to come in yet and to

be made available to the jury, but they're talking about it. that might happen today. it's one of the things we're going to look forward to watching in court. steph? >> "yet" is the key word. now let's turn back to our key story. the u.s. economy adding only 210,000 jobs in november. joining me now to discuss, u.s. labor secretary marty walsh. all the data shows that our economy is doing well, but this new number is clearly a miss. what happened? >> i don't know if it's a miss. i mean, every month that i've been standing here, the forecast has been either higher or lower. and there have been different -- i think at the end of the day, when you look at the story here during president biden's administration, we're seeing a lot of success. we're seeing a recovery that's working, nearly 6 million jobs added to the economy, we're seeing nearly two points dropped off the unemployment number. we're seeing people in manufacturing, construction, in those areas that quite honestly have been underperforming even pre-pandemic or doing well. we certainly have work to do. there's no question about it.

but i would say, we have to look at the whole picture and not just month-to-month snapshots. >> given all of that and add in the biggest ceos in this country are saying the supply chain issues are improving, the price of gas is dropping, consumer demand is up, those are all big positives, in addition to what you just laid out. put all of that together and explain to us, why then are the president's poll numbers dropping? >> i can't talk about the poll numbers. i think people -- president biden, if you look at what he's already accomplished in a short period of time, it's really remarkable. i mean, he's working hard, he's passed two major pieces of legislation. he's working on a third. he's focused on the initial recovery that we're seeing, some low-wage workers, earners are actually making more money. they're seeing his plan, when he ran for president was to help people get into the middle class. and if you look at the job gain in our country, a lot of it is in areas, even the folks that were making less money in the past and making more money, they're actually outpacing inflation, as far as earners. but you know, we have to

continue to move forward. this is a cycle. a lot of concern in this country with the pandemic. people have gone through a lot in the last 20 months, concerned about their health, concerned about their family, concerned about their job. and i think we're living in a time right now that we have to take it a day at a time and be patient with one another. >> there are still many, many open jobs. a lot of small business owners are saying, they've given up on trying to fill jobs. we know that immigration has been going down and the number of immigrant workers with h1-b visas just saw the worst drop in a decade. is that a contributing factor to the labor shortage? >> no, i think what's contributing to the labor short age is people are still concerned about the virus. we still don't have a strong system when it comes to child care in our system, that's a concern. we don't have a strong system about making sure who's taking care of our elderly and sick parents and grandparents. there are people worried about that. there are people worried about their health. that's why went we did the

standard, it was about making sure people felt safe going back into the workforce. >> really, we've heard from a lot of people who are part of this great resignation that they have left some of their lower wage jobs and they've found better jobs, higher-paying jobs, leaving some of the lower ones. you don't think addressing immigration would do anything? >> oh, no, sorry, i misinterpreted your question. i absolutely agree with you 100%. i think we should address immigration questions, there's no question about it. i misinterpreted what you were saying, i'm sorry. i think that's an issue that we should be dealing with, and when i go around the country and talk to ceos of company and ask them their opinion of immigration reform, and every single person i've spoken to agrees that this country needs to do comprehensive immigration reform. the president filed a bill on it and it's a bill that would help our economy and help our workplaces across america. no question about it. >> all right, then. secretary walsh, thank you for joining us this morning. i appreciate it. that wraps up this hour. i am stephanie ruhle. i owe my friend jose diaz-balart at least a minute. i am sorry for going over.