she's a former chief economist at the labor department; and diane swonk, senior managing director and chief economist for mesirow financial, a firm based in chicago. she joins us tonight from new york city. in 2010 when the economy was struggling to add jobs we had guests on like you who said you can't look at any one month and say much of anything. but now that we've had three straight months of high growth, a year and a half of net job creation, is it safe to get into the water and start talking about a pattern, something we can really hold on to? >> i think so, ray. when you as you said you don't want to put too much weight on any single month worth of data. but it is important to start doing a little bit of addition and looking at what we're seeing on the employment front, having three very strong months of robust job growth well beyond the number of jobs we need to keep pace with the growth of the population, on top of 17 months of adding jobs every month to the economy. seeing the unemployment rate coming down, even as more people are entering if into the labor market, seeing wa

diane swonk, diane, as gas prices have increased, the president's approval rating has decreased. i'm not one to make direct correlations, but there's been really nothing else that might have caused this. there's a clear breakdown based on where americans fall in the economy. your thoughts -- let me show you a poll first. a cbs/new york times poll shows among those making more than $100,000 a year, the president's approval rating has replamained relatively flat. meanwhile the approval rating for those making 30 to 50,000 a year dropped by 16 points. diane, is this a clear illustration that we've got two americas on two very different recovery tracks? >> i think we've got at least two americas on two different recovery tracks. i do think there is a different -- a very big difference between those at the very high income strata and what they feel they're very insensitive to gasoline prices. where those at the lower end of the income strata are not only having to deal with gas prices every week, day in and day out, most of them don't have the alternative of mass transit, most major c

economist diane swonk joins us to go through the jobs report, and look ahead at next week's federal reserve meeting on interest rates. our friday "market monitor" guest is scheduled to be jack ablin of harris private bank. >> susie: and finally tonight, are you feeling richer? according to the federal reserve, the net worth of american households increased by $1 trillion in the final three months of last year. net worth is total assets, like homes and stock portfolios, minus liabilities, like mortgages and credit card debt. the nation's total household wealth is now $58 trillion. sounds like a lot, but it's still below pre-recession levels. speaking of net worth, the nation minted a couple of new billionaires last year. esforb is out with its annual list of billionaires-- 1,200 people made the list. the top names are familiar: the world's richest man, mexico's carlos slim; right behind him, bill gates and warren buffett. but there are a few newbies, including elon musk, co-founder of payl unand fofoder of tesla motors; and sara blakely, who's made her fortune helping others ok good.d blakel

she's diane swonk, chief economist at mesirow financial. >> i do think there was hope in this report that has been really missing from other reports, and that was there was an increase in the number of people throwing their hat in the ring, looking for a job. we also saw some people that were more willing to quit a job. you don't quit a job unless you're going to get a job in this economy. again, some signs of hope. >> susie: is this job growth a trend? can this employment growth be sustained? >> not at this pace but what i think we will see is more of a moderation. there are special factors that helped. we had unseasonable weather since october so that helped us out. the good news is, it's there. the good news is there's something turning and it's better than it was. we have to remember, our threshold, though, was pretty low. >> susie: you know, i was talking to the head of a very big executive recruiting firm and he was saying c.e.o.s just aren't hiring, they're getting by with less to do more. is there anything that we can do to encourage companies to hire more? >> the fed is tryi

diane swonk, mark zandi, and austan goolsbee, professor of economics at the university of chicago boothn "squawk" continues. ♪ [ female announcer ] each one of us is our own boss. ♪ and no matter where you are in life, ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence teaching data how to do more for business. [ beeping ] in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions... [ beeping ] ...to bring all the right results. it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ choose control. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. >>> it's the number that moves markets and could impact the 2012 presidential race, the february jobs report is 30 minutes awa