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closings that came with the big surge in cases, that didn't even start until mid-december meaning we probably won't see the real impact until next month's report. that said, the economy right now is as fluid and unpredictable as it has been in decades. we learned earlier this week that a record 4.5 million americans quit or changed jobs in the month of december, part of the so-called great resignation. and it makes sense. if you can take advantage of high demand from employers, either get a better job or start your own business, great, but if you can't you can be falling behind. for lots of people, though, the real problem is inflation and even the wages have been up and they were up again in december, lots of those gains get completely wiped out when everything costs more. in fact, despite all of the positive news about the economy, only a fraction of workers say they came out ahead in 2021. so let's discuss. i want to bring in cnbc's senior economics reporter steve liesman, mark zandy for moody's annual ethics, anthony klotz and

karen kimbra chief economist for linkedin. steve, walk me through this number. it's confusing. >> yeah, well, i can say, stephanie, if you are not confused you are not paying attention. there's two different reports that people need to know b there's one report that gets data from the employers, another report where the government calls up people and asks them their status. the number you are looking at right now that's from the payroll report, that's 199,000. that number has been running very low on the initial reporting, and what they're doing is they've been revising up continuously this initial report. i will give you an example. they added back 141,000 additional jobs to october/november. the number underneath that number, the unemployment rate, comes from the household survey. i think at the end of the day, stephanie, people should not be overly confused or overwhelmed by the data. the unemployment rate is what you need to know. it tells you the number of

people who want to work and the number of people who are unemployed. you had a 480,000 decline in the number of unemployed, you had a huge number of people employed in the household survey, so i think every other piece of data that i see says this job market is strong and that top line payroll number of 199,000 is not going to deter me from that conclusion because so many employers are saying jobs are hard to get. that quit number you talked about tells me that the labor market is tight and i'm not going to be deterred by that top line number. >> mark, what jumped out at you here? >> i agree with steve. i mean, at the risk of being way too wonky, you know, i just think there is a lot of measurement issues here. one other thing to throw into the mix is during the pandemic we've had a low -- the bls, the bureau of labor statistics, the folks that put this data together got a very low response rate from businesses. what happens is you get these weak initial estimates of employment and then as more

employers report in subsequent weeks you get big upward revisions in the data. this december number will be revised a lot higher. we had average monthly job growth in 2021 of about 550,000, that's per month. i think that's the reality of what's going on. i think that's what happened this december. but having said all of that, the thing i think -- and you point this had out, stephanie, is that this is all before omicron. omicron obviously doing a lot of damage here to the labor market and i wouldn't be surprised if in january, a month from now when we're having this conversation, we don't see a decline in employment in january just because omicron is just disrupting things so badly. >> karen, would you agree with that? i'm thinking about all the big businesses that were planning on bringing their employees back this month and now because of the variant it's got pushed back, so all the cafeteria workers, gym workers, ancillary businesses around big corporate offices on hold again. >> we definitely think that this

data coming out today hasn't yet captured omicron, i think that's likely to show up in january's numbers that will come out in a month and maybe even in february. i think we still have another shoe to drop. in our data what we're seeing it, one, remote is here to stay, people like it, they got used to it, nobody wants to give it up and go back to a commute. so that will be a permanent fixture of the workforce. two, it's not a great resignation, it's a great reshuffle. a lot of people are quitting but a lot of people are getting hired. we're seeing upwards of like 30 to 40% increase in the rate of people changing jobs in the u.s. and that's for women, gen z and even greater levels than men and older workers. there is a lot of dime a nichl. i agree with steve, this is a strong market. >> anthony, you predicted the great resignation. would you say it's a great reshuffling because when people have the confidence to quit, it

doesn't mean they're sitting home and saying i don't want to do anything, it means there's another job, maybe a better job out there. >> yeah, and i don't think the great resignation implies that people are leaving the workforce permanently. whether it's a great resignation or great reshuffle, i think it's getting at the same thing, it's a strong labor market, individuals feel confident that they can leave and find another job relatively quickly or they can take a short career break or explore an entrepreneurial venture or stay home with family and jobs will be there when they come back. there's definitely reshuffle going on. with every one of these quit numbers there is a resignation attached to it which is why i think both terms capture what is going on well. >> karen, from a reshuffle to a switch-a-roo, can you explain this reversal to us when it comes to the labor market? in november of 2020 there were nearly 11 million people unemployed, less than 7 million job openings. one year later it is the exact opposite, less than 7 million

workers, more than 10 million openings. can you explain this? >> we've had this just surge of job openings all year long and i think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the economy came roaring back with a huge amount of demand from people who were at home, working from home, and demanding goods and the supply chain had gotten a little squeezed and, you know, employers responded by opening up a lot more jobs. these jobs are responding to the fact that there is dynamism in our economy. underlying all of this with the strong labor market is that the economy is in pretty good shape which is why you see the fed move in the way they're moving and signaling how they're moving. >> mark, how do you rationalize the economy came roaring back, we have the data to show t yet when you poll the american people, when you poll workers, only a fraction of u.s. citizens are saying they feel like they're coming out ahead. >> yeah, inflation, you know, inflation is up, 40-year high,

the consumer price inflation is up almost 7% year over year through november. the wage growth is strong, i think in today's numbers we had something close to 5% wage growth, but that's less than 7% inflation. so they're right, they're not keeping up. prices for a lot of things that people buy regularly that are very visible like filling up your gasoline tank or buying a pound of ground beef, that's up a lot and people know that and they feel it and they sense it. you know, inflation hasn't been a problem for 40 years so a lot of people this is the first time they've really seen t felt it, are being hurt by it, so it really stings. i think not until inflation comes down will people start to, you know, feel better and, you know, begin to recognize that, wow, you know, 3.9% unemployment is a pretty good thing, but they're just not going to recognize that until inflation is lower. >> steve, there is always an element of unpredictability in business and at some point we're

going to have to live with the reality of covid. have we gotten ourselves, though, to a position where as soon as we see another surge we're turning to the government again for support? >> yeah, i mean, i think that we are hopefully past the point of blanket support out there. i think there's some legitimate reasons to support some of the restaurants and maybe some of the concert venues and establishments that are really hurt by these -- or that rely upon mass gatherings to really operate and do well, especially since they probably hired a bunch of people back with the end of delta, you don't want to see them go through that, but i think there's psychology aspect to this, stephanie, that's going to serve the economy well through this omicron wave. first of all, you take what the doctors have been saying and what people who you know have experienced, that this is a more mild variant and that the expectation is that it's going to be short. layer on top of that the idea that employers have had trouble finding people.

so i think what they're going to do through this wave is they're going to hold on as much as they can to the workers that they have and so i think there's -- this wave is going to show up in the data but i don't think it's going to be as extreme as it was previously and i think we may get some bad numbers in january or some lower numbers in january but maybe as soon as february we will start to see a rebound and a pretty good rebound. >> anthony, is the way in which we're measuring jobs no longer relevant? is that part of the confusion here, or is it that covid messes with how even businesses are willing to report it as mark was saying earlier? >> yeah, so i think covid has messed with the job numbers a little bit, but in terms of -- i'm not sure if it's in terms of how organizations are reporting it or just in terms of organizations in many ways weren't expecting necessarily this wave of resignations so they are adjusting to it as well. look, organizations are not just sitting still in the wake of these large resignation numbers, they're making lots of changes,

experimenting with four-day work weeks, hybrid work systems, and that's attracting some new employees, but then perhaps driving some others away. so i think they're getting their arms around what's going on here and that's probably causing some noise in the data that we're seeing. >> if you told me i could work four days a week, i promise i would not be driven away. karen, anthony, mark, steve, thank you all so much. we're going to leave it there because we have to turn to some frightening new revelations just coming out about january 6, 2021 and the danger that was facing then vice president-elect kamala harris that afternoon. let's bring in nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander and capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell. peter, let's start with you. what is this about vp harris? what happened? >> reporter: well, so this happened on january 6th last year and obviously it tells you how much we still don't know about the details of that day and the potential danger to the incoming administration. a white house official confirms to nbc news that just two weeks before she was sworn in on that

day harris was at the democratic national committee's offices not far from the capitol when she was evacuated after a pipe bomb was found just outside the building. again, that pipe bomb was discovered on the same day that the mob attacked the u.s. capitol. among other things, again, it does sort of reiterate the danger that that insurrection posed, it also sort of reveals the near miss and the potential devastating consequences that would have happened had that pipe bomb exploded and frankly the vice president of the united states to be was there at the time. we know that harris was then evacuated and went to a separate location at that time, we still don't know what that exact location was, but it is just the latest in some of those new details we continue to learn as the committee on capitol hill frankly investigates all of what happened around that day. >> leigh ann we heard a lot of talk about prevent ago repeat of january 6. what does that actually look like and what does it mean? is it about more security in terms of an actual attack?

is it about misinformation? or is it about election security? >> reporter: it's about all -- yeah, it's all of the above, steph. i mean, that's the three prongs that you just laid out that democrats are really focused on up here on capitol hill. you have the security component as far as capitol police are concerned, they have been working diligently to try to rectify the failures of what happened on january 6th, but also i'm hearing from rank and file capitol police officers that they aren't seeing a lot of changes, despite what top leadership are saying. so there's still a lot of work to be done there. and then there's the intelligence component and making sure this doesn't happen again as far as misinformation is concerned and that's what the january 6 select committee is doing, they are deep into their investigation, they were quiet yesterday, we saw no news from them and that was planned, that they planned that so that it would not interrupt what was happening as far as these

commemoration right side concerned. and then you've heard from senate democratic leader chuck schumer all week long that january 6 is tied directly to their voting rights legislation, the reason is because that voting rights legislation not only deals with voter suppression and enables people to have more access to the polls, but it also tries to undo what some of these state legislatures around the country are doing by making it much more difficult to fire election officials or allowing citizens and voters to sue if their ballot was not counted. democrats say that this will prevent another january 6th and another -- prevent someone in the future saying that elections were stolen when they weren't, but they still have a lot of work to do, steph. >> they certainly do. peter, leigh ann, thank you so much. before we go to break, important story. a company that tried but failed to prove voter fraud in arizona is now shutting down for good.

remember this name, cyber ninjas. they reviewed millions of ballots at the request of arizona state republicans, heavily criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and its claims were ultimately rejected by county officials earlier this week. on thursday a judge reportedly threatened the company with fines if it didn't hand over its documents to comply with a public records request. so what did they do? they didn't hand them over. instead cyber ninjas decided to shut down, close its doors completely for good. what does that tell you? still ahead, we will have much more on today's job report, marty walsh will join us. six health advisers to president biden calling on the administration to completely kang its covid strategy. dr. scott got lean will be here to make sense of it all. chicago public schools closed again today with parents there saying that makes no sense. we will be asking mayor lori lightfoot if she feels like they're failing chicago families. feels like ey're failing chicago families started to deteriorate,

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new this morning the cdc director doubling down on the agency's confusing guidance for people infected with covid and the amount of time they should stay isolated. >> we at the cdc are 12,000 people who are working 24/7 following the science with the ever evolving nature in the midst of a really fast-moving pandemic and we are doing so, putting our head down to keep america safe. we will continue to update, we will continue to improve how we communicate to the american public. this is fast moving science. >> i'm so confused. as of this morning the u.s. has surpassed 58 million total covid cases since the pandemic began and six former health advisers to president biden are calling on the administration to completely change its covid strategy from wiping it out to a new normal of living with the virus indefinitely. joining us to discuss sam brock in hard hit florida and dr.

scott gottlieb former fda commissioner. scott, should the biden administration be shifting their strategy that we're living with covid, get used to it? >> well, look, i didn't take that article as an indictment of the current approach, but more a call towards how we have to change our posture going forward when this becomes the new normal, when this becomes an endemic virus. i think it's premature to envision what that's going to look like. we may face a virus that surges next winter and is a persistent threat or we may see a slow down in the variants and it may become less virulent as we build our wall of immunity. calling for a strategy as to what that new normal needs to look like is premature in the setting of this current crisis. >> what's your take on the cdc's current guidance because a lot of people are confused? >> yeah, look, the cdc didn't communicate it well. the issue of isolating only for five days and then being able to go back to work after five days, i think what the cdc is saying and what's implicit in that is

they're recognizing this is an epidemic that's not being spread by people who isolate for five days after a diagnosis and then go out into the public on day six or seven. it's an epidemic that's being spread by people who go untested, who aren't getting diagnosed. we are probably only diagnosing close to one in ten actual infections right now. this isn't an epidemic that's being propagated by people who get diagnosed, isolate and do the right thing. it is the case that fully a third of people after five days probably are still contagious. what cdc should be saying is that people after they isolate for five days need to continue to take precautions and they need to make the determination what setting they're going back into. if you're going back into a health care setting or setting where there's vulnerable people, people at risk, you need to recognize you may still be contagious. that's a practical approach recognizing if you ask people to isolate for a full ten days knowing that two-thirds are no longer contagious you're going to put a big strain on the economy when that's not the driver of the epidemic right now. >> sam, take us to florida

because i'm sitting here in a new york newsroom talking about hard hit florida and we know from your reporting how taxing this has been on the health care system, yet i was in your state last week and people are partying like it's 1999. i couldn't find a mask for miles. >> reporter: you will see more masks now. i do have to say that is correct stephanie, that's evolved over time. yes, only new york has added more covid cases in the last two weeks than florida. nomi health gave us an inside look into what they're doing in testing. they have been plenty busy. what they're doing is nothing short of remarkable, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 to 50,000 pcr tests a day in this county and another 20,000 rapid antigen tests as well. over my shoulder you will see there are six containers, this is where the bulk of the work is being done. they look like prefab homes. they go up in a matter of 72 hours and there are six stages to how this works. they take the samples from a testing site, cure years it

over, then it goes to one of those containers, it's in there, logged and digitized into the system, the lab technicians take out a small portion of that sample, this is call sloquatting to extract the rna from the covid sample to test to see if it's positive. the genomic sequencing doesn't happen here, that takes place offsite. i spoke with the co-founder joshua walker about what role they're playing right now in public health. here is what he had to say. >> for us it's been even from the beginning we felt that part of testing, accessibility to testing, was both clinical which is you're symptomatic and you need to know but it's also economical. it's helping us all return back to some version of normal life. if you are worried about access to care that slows the economy down, slows your life down. if you look back at the worst parts of the pandemic some organizations where it was taking two weeks to get a result, you can't put your life on hold for two weeks. it has to be in 24 hours, 48

hours. >> reporter: steph, nomi says in a five-day period in december they went from seeing virtually none of the positive tests linked to omicron to more than 90% of them linked to rom cron. there's no live virus in here, they have chemicals in the solution of the vial that as soon as the covid sample is introduced deactivates the virus so it's safer for everyone as they're going through right now at a strenuous rate and trying to figure out if folks are positive. increasingly right now it's about 30% to 35% of all the samples right now that are coming back positive. >> scott, i want to ask you have you gone back to relatively normal in how you live your life? when i look at my own family, we're vaccinated, boosted, we have access to testing so we're close to back to normal. how are you living? >> yeah, look, i'm not back to normal. i don't think you can be back to normal in an environment like the one we are right now, it's a very high prevalence environment. you look at florida, miami-dade county has over 400 cases per

100,000 people per day. a lot of counties in new york and new jersey also have that level of infection. at that level of infection you can't be doing things like you normally do. the bottom line, though, is that we are seeing cases peak in florida and new york right now and new jersey, they're peaking probably right now, that's going to be more discernible as we head into next week and this epidemic is going to move to other parts of the country, the west and midwest but this will come down as quickly as it went up and hopefully prevalence remains low in the spring and summer. >> dr. gottlieb, thank you for joining us and sam brock. we have to turn because as omicron cases are soaring across the nation, it is causing a real nightmare for kids and parents, specifically in the city of chicago. today marks the third straight day that chicago public schools canceled classes after the teachers union voted to go remote due to the surge of covid cases. parents had to scramble with less than a day's notice to find child care as the city and union battle it out, but it looks like some progress is being made with chicago mayor lori lightfoot

calling their negotiations productive yesterday. parents there want to know what does that mean and mayor lightfoot joins us now. mayor, it's safe to say chicago families feel like your city is failing them. >> well, look, the practical reality is that when the teachers union engages in a unilateral legal strike, i understand parents' anger. i've been hearing from them nonstop, email, text message, calls, watching and following parents chat groups. they're angry and i understand that because they feel like their voice, their choice has been taken away from them, and i've got to be the advocate for those parents and that's why i've drawn the line and said enough is enough. no more unilateral actions. we have to resolve this at the bargaining table but the union doesn't get to speak for every single person in the school community and usurp the role of the parents and the students. so we are making progress.

>> how does you putting your foot down translate into getting back to school? what happens monday? >> well, my hope is that we are going to get a deal struck here in the next day or so that gets our kids back in school, in-person learning, and the deal covers the duration of the school year and we don't have any additional disruptions. that's what i'm hoping for. >> chicago already spent 100 million bucks to make schools safer. what haven't you done that the teachers are asking for? what is the missing link? have they articulated it? >> well, i think what the issue is is that with this omicron surge they'd like to see more testing and we're in the process of putting even more testing into our schools, but, stephanie, the answer to every question related to the virus and particularly the omicron variant is vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. where the teachers union could be a constructive partner with us is to go with us school by school and to educate parents

and the students and get as many of them vaccinated as possible. 92% of our staff is vaccinated because they worked cooperatively with us. if they did the same thing regarding our students we would see a complete change in the trajectory of virus as it affects our students, but we've got to work collaterally. you can't not have unilateral action that is completely untethered from the data and the science and unfortunately that's what the teachers union did this week and i can't stand for that. >> what is the impact on kids? it's not just, oh, hey, we are not going to go into the classroom today, we're going to do it from home. i have three kids and in my own home on the days when you suddenly go remote not much happens. >> well, look, you have to think about who our parents are. we are a large urban district, over 70% of our kids qualify for free or reduced lunch. we are a school system of single parents, many of whom have to

work multiple jobs to make ends meet. so when you know that and you think about the fact that you can't just drop everything on a moment -- no notice, you can't just go and send your kid to child care. you may not be able to afford that. it is a catastrophic cascading effect on our parents and the families and that doesn't even begin to account for the fact of a social and emotional toll that it takes on our students. this one data point, we were supposed to have 700 different athletic events just this week, another 1,200 next week. are we canceling all of those? are we disrupting all of the other extra crick collars because of this unilateral illegal strike? there are huge consequences for even one day disruption let alone multiday and unfortunately it doesn't feel like the union understands that but our parents do. they're feeling that pain and i have to be their advocate and say enough is enough. we're not doing this again. so we're going to have some

short-term pain, but i hope that the short-term pain gives us long-term gain and that we will not have any further disruptions for the rest of the school year. but it's terrible for parents and families. we've got to give our parents stability and predictability. >> we have to give those kids a great education and a bright future. mayor lightfoot, thank you for joining us. i appreciate it. well, the battle over schools continues in chicago, another fight that impacts the whole country just reached the supreme court. today the justices will hear challenges to president biden's vaccine and testing mandates for large employers and health care workers and the headline says it all, the government's ability to control the pandemic is at stake. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has the story. pete, here is the thing, it's now being challenged at the supreme court but big businesses out there, they love these mandates. it's the one thing that's helping them get their workers back. and they've worked. >> well, the ones who don't love the mandates are the ones who

are suing and this is probably medium-sized businesses who say that many of their workers will simply quit and go to work for smaller companies that they can't force their workers to get vaccines. trucking companies, for example, say it doesn't make sense to impose a testing mandate that there is no parking lot for semi trucks at walgreens or cvs. so the argument in both cases -- and, by the way, these are very consequential cases because they affect potentially 100 million americans, people who either work for companies that employ more than 100 or who are health care workers, they say the federal government simply doesn't have the authority to do this. that federal law, the osha requirement, this is occupational safety and health administration for workers, the organizations that regulate medicare and medicaid for the health care workers, that they don't have the authority to impose such sweeping restrictions. the government says, yes, they do. osha has the authority to control workplace hazards and the medicare and medicaid authorities say what better way

to safeguard these patients than to make sure that the people treating them are vaccinated. so the question before the supreme court is can the federal government carry on with these while the lower court fights go on in the lower courts. >> so what happens if the supreme court makes a decision, says these mandates aren't just, for the businesses that already implemented them and got rid of employees who were unwilling to vaccinate, do they have to hire them back? >> no, not necessarily. that would be a separate legal question and that's not really before the courts here, and i don't know whether some of those people would voluntarily come back or not, but, you're right, it is an interim step here, but on the other hand whatever the supreme court says the government's authority to do this or not is probably going to be the controlling decision on how these cases eventually play out. now, one other note, the osha requirements are in effect now, they were blocked by one lower court, but then another lower federal court said, no, the government can go ahead and start to carry them out.

the health care requirements are in effect in about half the states, but not the other half. so there is a mixed picture here of enforcement. >> all right. pete williams, thank you. coming up next, we're going to head to court for several major stories you need to know about this morning, including former new york governor andrew cuomo set to appear virtually in just a few hours. as the accused michigan high school shooter and his parents were also being held. oter and hs were also being held i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill.

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sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. stories you need to know this morning. with three big cases playing out in courtrooms across the country. in just a few hours former new york governor andrew cuomo due to appear virtually in court as a judge considers a request to dismiss a misdemeanor fondling charge against him. the prosecutor saying he couldn't prove that cuomo groped his former aide in 2020. crow mow telling investigators it would be a, quote, act of insanity to do that. in michigan the teen accused of opening fire inside a michigan high school in november is back this court this morning. that shooting left four students dead and seven others injured. meanwhile, his parents james and jennifer crumbley will head to

court today to ask for lower bail. the parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter after allegedly making a gun available and ignoring warning signs. prosecutors argue that if the judge lowers bail the crumbleys could flee. all threes members of the family have pleaded not guilty thus far. finally, in just a few minutes sentencing begins for the three men found guilty of the murdering ahmaud arbery. travis mcmichael, greg mick michael and william bryant face a minimum life sentence even if the judge decides that parole is possible, each man will be serving at least 30 years in prison. coming up next, the white house reaction to the latest jobs report, labor secretary marty walsh will be here live. report, bolar secretary marty walsh will be here live. >cominge reaction to the latest jobs report, labor secretary marty walsh will be here live. >coming house reaction to the latest jobs report, labor secretary marty walsh will be here live. > house reaction to the latest jobs report, labor secretary marty walsh will be here live. house reaction to the latest jobs report, labor secretary marty walsh will be here live. ry marty walsh will be here live. as a dj, i know all about customization.

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president biden set to speak about it in about an hour, but first we get an early look at how the white house is reacting. joining to discuss labor secretary marty walsh secretary, a big miss on the number, however, the unemployment rate continues to drop. what do you make of this number? >> certainly it's a solid number as we continue to move forward and recover here in our recovery. i looked at 2021 today, the president's economic plan passing the american rescue plan added 6.4 million jobs to the economy, knocked almost 3% off the unemployment number, that's the quickest since 1940. we're seeing all the right signs moving forward. 84% of the people are returning to work. clearly we know we have more work to do, we saw good gains this month in manufacturing and other areas and we saw some adjustments in the months of november and october that rose those job numbers as well. we just need to continue to move forward here. >> well, you've got the good economic data, you've got the actual wins. what you don't have is the

feeling. why does the president continue to poll so low on economic issues when we're clearly in recovery? >> i don't know, it's really unfortunate. president biden has really had an amazing first year as president, passing the rescue plan, passing the largest ever bipartisan infrastructure bill, which we're going to be seeing investments all across this country, working to make sure we're getting our economy going after 10-year pandemic since last time we were dealing with a pandemic in this country but the president is not frustrated, he's going to continue to move forward and continue to do his job and that's what he expects out of myself and the rest of the cabinet and the rest of the administration. >> we still do have a lot of open jobs, especially small employers are complaining they cannot fill some of those lower-wage, more manual labor-type jobs. is it time to prioritize immigration reform? >> well, i think immigration reform would definitely help us. i know that it was a component of build back better and the president certainly has filed legislation to look at

immigration and to do immigration reform. i've spent a lot of time going across this country, i've talked to large employers all across this country, i asked that question about immigration reform and almost every employer to a person has said to me immigration reform is something needed in our country even with the shortages of getting people back to work, but in general immigration reform is important for our country. >> we have seen the vaccine mandates work. fortune 500 ceos talk to us all the time, they are glad the rule was put in place, they've put it in place at their businesses but we know today the supreme court is going to hear arguments against it for large employers. if the court says it's no good, a, what's the backup plan and, b, does it necessarily matter, so many businesses have already implemented it and it's worked? >> i think right now we're focused on seeing what the court does today. we're arguing in front of the court. experts have said we clearly have legal authority to do what we're doing. when you think about what we're seeing an increase in omicron

virus right now, people that are vaccinated and boostered are safe, generally safer. so we're going to stay the course and see what happens with the court and to make a decision after what the court decides. >> do you actually check with employers to see if they're implementing the mandates? how do you follow it? do you just trust that they're doing it? >> i will be honest with you, i've talked to a lot of employers and they have told me that they put either in a mandate or some type of requirements for masking and testing and vaxes of their employers. they're trying to make sure that their workplace is safe for their employees and make sure they can create opportunities for people to come back to work. the companies that have done it have been successful and pleased by it and a lot of people in this country -- it's about keeping people safe as we move forward here. when it comes to the point of enforcing it, i do feel companies will follow through. at least five republican-led

states are now letting people get unemployment benefits if they get fired over refusing to get vaccinated. what do you think about that? >> you know, we are looking into that right now. i think it's kind of ironic that those same states were can you get people off unemployment benefits about six months ago when the additional $300 per week for people and now people are getting unemployment for not being laid off. we're looking into that right now, but, you know, i just think -- i think that they should reevaluate what they're doing. we need to get people back to work and we need to get people vaxxed, tested and masked. >> marty walsh, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. up next, 60 million people dealing with a massive snowstorm this morning, it's happening right here in ncc. if you are one of the millions of americans who have been caught in the travel mess because of weather, because of covid, we're going to break down what to do if your flight gets canceled and what the airline owes you, more than just sitting on hold, i promise. you, more tg

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gosk. steph, what is going on here in new york city? i know my kids all woke up and pretended to have sore throats, which none of them had, because they wanted to be exactly where you are, in the snow. >> you know what, it's lovely out here, actually, steph. but i can tell you from very personal experience, it was not so lovely around 6:30 in the morning. and you know, this isn't the biggest storm to hit this part of the country in history, that's for sure. but it really came at a terrible time, right at rush hour. there's a period of time in this area where it was snowing an inch, 2 inches an hour. there are still places in the northeast where it's coming down. and it's a bit heavier than they predicted. some places, it's going to be more a foot. but it comes after a pretty rough week on the east coast, when it comes to storms. you had that terrible scene in virginia, those people stuck on i-95 for 24 hours, 36 hours. and then there was a pretty treacherous ice storm in upstate new york, as well, just a couple of days ago. and that was a bit of a mess. and then you have this today.

and it has resulted in, you know, sore throats or not, some cancellations in schools and delays and kids really getting what they don't need, another remote day. >> well, my kids have school in person, tough luck for them. steph, thank you! >> reporter: ha-ha! >> this winter weather is just one reason behind major backups at airports across the country. already today in the u.s., over 2,300 flights have been canceled and over 1,100 delayed. but it is important to know that if your flight gets canceled or majorly delayed, all hope is not lost. you have got some rights and we want you to know them. there's been over 20,000 flights canceled over the last couple of weeks, so let's break down what you can do. if you cancel your flight, well, that is on you. but if the airline cancels or significantly changes the flight, you are entitled to a full refund no matter the reason, from weather to covid staffing issues. but you must advocate for yourself. airlines often try to give you a voucher for later travel, but

you have a right to ask for couch. if they say they're going to put you on another flight, you can also still decline and get your money back. that is your right. if you choose to be rebooked and you are already at the airport, here's a pro tip. do your own research. a busy gate agent may not be looking at all the options and i can promise you this, you yelling at them is not going to help. there could be another airport you can fly into, a connection that you could possibly use, some airlines will actually book you on another carrier, but you've got to ask for it. if they cannot get you on another flight the same day, some airlines, like american and delta, might help you with a hotel for one night. but if the next flight is a few days away, you're most likely on your own. in certain cases like europe, they will give you money for a hotel and meals, so if you're traveling back from europe, look into those rights. but most importantly, if you are calling the airlines, do not pick up the call and sit on hold for four, five, seven, or twelve

hours. please use features like using a call-back number, they work. you can also use emailing or take to social media if you think it will help out. if you are really not helped, if you are truly living planes, trains, and automobiles, you do not have to be steve martin and john candy. i'm stephanie ruhle. i hope that helped. jose diaz-balart picks up the breaking news coverage on the other side of the break. e breaking news coverage on the other side of the break. (vo) verizon is going ultra and so is our best unlimited plan ever!

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good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern/7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart on a very busy friday morning. we're following two breaking legal stories this hour. happening right now at the nation's highest court, justices are hearing arguments on two of president biden's covid vaccine mandates. and right now in georgia, the three men who chased and murdered 25-year-old ahmaud arbery are back in court awaiting their sentencing. we'll bring you the latest from that courtroom. also breaking this morning, the new december jobs report reveals the economy added less than 200,000 jobs in december, far fewer than the estimate. later this hour, president biden will deliver remarks on the state of the economy. of course, we'll bring you that when it begins. plus, a massive winter storm brought snow to the northeast, mid-atlantic, and even parts of the south along with freezing temperatures and dangerous conditions for this morning's commute.

and we begin this morning at the u.s. supreme court, where right now, the justices are hearing oral arguments on cases challenging two biden administration vaccine policies. it affects tens of millions of workers. one involves an emergency rule requiring companies with more than 100 employees to ensure that workers are fully vaccinated or tested once a week. the other involves a requirement for workers at health care facilities that accept medicare and medicaid funds to be fully vaccinated, but with some exceptions. with me now, nbc news correspondent, ken dilanian. he is outside the u.s. supreme court. and former acting u.s. solicitor general, neal katyal, who has argued dozens of cases before the supreme court. he's also a professor at the georgetown university law center and an msnbc legal analyst. ken, let me begin with you, what are the people and groups who brought these cases hoping to accomplish? >> good morning, jose. well, the