but in our current economy, a record number of americans are either unemployed or underemployed, meaning that the job that they have is either part time or pays less than what's required to meet basic necessities. in 2011 the centers for disease and control and prevention reported on the suicide rate from 1928 all the way to 2007. suicide rates mirrored the economy in the ups and downs with bag uptick when the great depression began, and hitting a zenith in 1923. suicide rates plunged during world war ii and then they spiked in the early '70s and '780s, after unemployment hit its post-war peak in 1982. suicide dropped to the lowest levels ever in the year 2000 when technology was on fire. unemployment was at a stunning 4% at the time. but has the dot-com bubble burst? american suicide rates have been steadily climbing. all of that is a stark reminder that the job issue is an economic issue. it's a lot more than that. it's an issue that gets to the very soul of our culture and its people. joblessness results in either people giving up in despair or rising up in defiance. of course, both p

we'll hear from americans unemployed or underemployed. they are desperate to find work. >> i'd like to hear from you, go to my website and tell me what you think. or sign up for mys may book page . >>> throughout the show tonight you're going to be hearing from people who have different stories but with one thing in common they're all looking for work. jerry simmons took two pay cuts before she was laid off as her job as a health care insurance agent last summer. she spent more than a year sending out dozens of resumes. what kind of feedback are you getting from employers you are hoping will hire you? >> hi, governor. i have had kind of an interesting experience with interviewing. i looked at opportunities where i might be going into an entry level positions. and one of the questions is what is your long-term goals and where would you like to be in five years. and i say i like to apply my skills and be able to grow with the company and learn their business and be able to grow with them. and the response that i've had to that has been kind

we'll hear from americans unemployed or underemployed. they are desperate to find work. >> i'd like to hear from you, go to my website and tell me what you think. or sign up for mys may book page [ male announcer ] come to the lexus golden opportunity sales event and choose from one of five lexus hybrids that's right for you, including the lexus es and ct hybrids. ♪ this is the pursuit of perfection. ♪ could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w... ...e...i...e...i...o. [buzzer] dangnabbit. geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know. that lets you swipe images to multiple people. the new droid ultra by motorola. when intelligence matters. droid does. . >>> throughout the show tonight you're going to be hearing from people who have different stories but with one thing in common they're all looking for work. jerry simmons took two pay cuts before she was laid off as her job as a hea

unemployment rate is 7.3%, with and the number of unemployed and the underemployed over o 12 millioncans. which shows you that the hole this country is in is substantial. >> absolutely, the participation rate, labor participation rate is at a generational low. and this is the problem that the jobs that the president will take credit for creating are low paying, many of them are part-time, they're not nearly the high-qualified high paying jobs that will help people feel comfortable about their place in society to lay out money, to make a purchase of a home, a new car, to feel comfortable about their retirement. so there are still fundamental we call them structural issues effecting this economy and keeping at the very lackluster growth case above 2%. >> a poll a week ago we questioned people about the across about how they feel about the economy. whether they improve or disapprove what the president is doing. 60% in the polls disprove of the policies and the way they've tried to repair the economy. that's a pretty resounding number 60%. >> it speaks volumes and back to the election wh

the residents the people who are unemployed as well as the underemployed residents who are. really struggling so. while the bill didn't pass it wouldn't just have been about wal-mart it would have also affected other billion dollar corporations. here in the district already but since they're building six you know the big to do but at this point now. i think we're going to keep advocating we're going to keep telling our city council that d.c. residents deserve better and in fact this whole multi-year you know push this movement in the city to hold wal-mart accountable has led to several council members introducing a citywide minimum wage hike. which they had never introduced before. so. we have to figure out what the best steps are to move forward at this point. it's question is how why do you think it is that several supposedly progressive members of the council did not vote to override that veto because really it was their chance yeah it really was their chance well. council member chase said that she just didn't think it was a good piece of legislation i guess the way that

it's this idea that somehow if are you underemployed or not employed that are you lazy and gaming a systemhat is there-- that there is this idea that poor people in this country are coasting on the benefits of all the rich benefits that they can just take advantage of. it's a lie, it's a struggle and there's not a person in that situation that doesn't want out of that situation. >> of course it is a huge lie, it's per trade unfortunately by some people who are doing extremely well. i mean what we-- the latest research shows that the top 1% are now taking home almost 23% of total income in this country, this is a new record. all, 95% of the gains. >> jon: why not change the tax structure to be more aggressive. why end the social security tax, why cap t why not just keep going. why not means test some of these benefits. i dounted stand it. >> well, i'm with you. >> jon: well that seems simple. >> well, i agree. >> jon: so why don't they do that? (applause) why is that-- why is that so hard politically. why is that difficult. >> i'll tell you why. the reason it's difficult is because with ris

evenhough it's a same population of underemployed low wage workers it's a very different strategic situation for the two kinds of corporations. >> so having said that do you think anything is actually going to change? >> i think that the strike portion of the walmart protests will not change anything at walmart. if a specific pla is successful shutting it down they'll just shut down that location. what i do think it is possible, is that this is part of a larger conversation about the minimum wage in america, and the political nature of it. and i think in that regard, all e pple who are going out on strike have a real possibility if they connect with their political representatives in congress. >> okay and as we said, we did reach out to walmart for a comment. professor, we appreciate your pa of the conversation. thank you so much. >>> walmart's first profits are significant with over 30 billion earned in the second quarter of this year alone. their profits soar over the competition, walgreen's amazon costco, and target earned between 20 billion and 27 billion less than walmart. >>> j.c. penn

. >> so the unemployed and the underemployed is almost 22 million americans. >> yes. >> and the president never talks about that. >> well, no. i mean, and understandably, why would he? >> is he responsible for that? >> well, i mean, he could blame president bush as he has all four years, but i don't think that his stimulus programs, which he will point to as creating jobs and that we have had job creation in the last two years, i don't think that they did what he hoped they would do. what they have done is put us in more debt, and our debt and deficit are a huge issue. >> reed john taylor, stanford university says, of course, a stimulus of a trillion dollars is going to have a short-term bomb. but in the long term, it's going to make a debt and deficit. >> and this economy has not been what we would hope for. >> brenda butner, good to see you. catch brenda on "bulls and bears" saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. right here on the fox newschannel. >>> syria has supposedly broken the chemical weapons deal. fox news contribute tore and pulitzer prize winner judith miller will give us perspective.

add them to the unemployed plus the millions more who are underemployed, they're working part time because they can't find full time work. and that's what you get to 13.7% of the workforce. that's 21 and a half million people in america distressed in some way by their employment situation. now, i know you're not begging me to give you another number but i think you need to know this one. this is the labor force participation rate. the percentage of everyone of working age in america who is either working or looking for work. this one has taken a beating since the recession. it was down to 63.2% in august. now that's the lowest as you can see that it's been in the last several years. it's actually the lowest it's been since 1978, 35 years. this number is never going to be 100%. college students for instance could be working but they aren't. stay at home mothers, the fabulously wealthy. the better it has been is 61.3%. it's a little low for comfort. why is that? i'll talk about that but first, i'm going to talk about someone who didn't give up. why isn't the u.s. job market recovering faster

underemployed. >> that's right. it's a segment of the population that gets little intention. it's a segment that has part-time jobs, temporary jobs and has to put a life together using pieces of employment. increasingly. people putting together multiple part-time jobs. >> for the last 30 years with the structure of the economy, what has happened is the companies have narrowed a core workforce, creating a periphery, and that includes people like those we see in walmart, those that we see in the fast-food companies. and so what is happening is that this segment of the population is getting angrier and angrier because they can't keep up. they are bringing attention - direction. >> protests are the way to do it, but we are seeing if from the top-down. the new labor secretary mr peres said he supported - not a particular wage - but supported the protesters coming out striking. >> it's fantastic, rarely do we have a secretary of labour speaking out for workers. it's good. the protests are insufficient if there's not organisation to sustain it. the protest is important. we know how

back to where it should be i mean we have still have twelve million people who are unemployed or underemployed we have six million people approximately six million people who have been unemployed for a very very long period of time and we have a norm is almost a record number of people who are too discouraged even to look for work so anybody who says that this economy is really in a good recovery is not paying much attention is there something the president isn't doing he should do. a good question i if there is i can't think of it i mean i you know he has gone about as far has he possibly can go with the republicans he there's certain things he can do administrative leave but again congress has the purse strings if congress does not want to keep the government funded or cannot do it because the republicans won't let the rest of congress and if there are not the votes there to lift the debt ceiling the president simply is powerless there's nothing that the president can do. the federal minimum wage is seven dollars to twenty five cents an hour that's about fifteen thousand eight hundred dollar

technology as well this issue of what are you going to do with this growing number of unemployed and underemployed people particularly those concentrated in the ghettos as it were the people of color black americans who have a traditional. a revolutionary sort of rebellious legacy in the history of the country and that sort of confluence came together to create the policies of mass incarceration as we know them of course the drug war would come a little bit later providing a crucial fuel to that fire. people joke about how they need to go to prison to get health care and services it's just really a sad state of affairs your book talks about the horrible conditions and these prisons you've likened to actual torture chambers what do you mean by that well i mean it's an interesting point i mean you pointed out for example the california prison. had five hundred five hundred people who had been in solitary confinement for over ten years now the council of europe in two thousand and eleven said that anything over fourteen days in solitary confinement should be considered so that's just one example twen

supporting those unemployed and underemployed people, supporting struggling small businesses in a difficult economy, and i support the small businesses versus more chain stores that seem to be coming into the store fronts, but i try to be sympathetic to local businesses because they make up the diversity of our local neighborhoods. those are some of the challenges that face our businesses. >> are there other issues specific to your district? how do you balance the needs of the issues in your district against the needs of the city as a whole? >> i know that our district has a higher proportion of seniors than some other district, and there is a brand new senior complex and wraparound community services complex called the institution on aging bridge housing complex, but it is going to concentrate a lot of the senior services and nonprofits. about 180 units of affordable senior housing in our district. i am actually a baby boomer, at the edge of the baby boomer, and i know that baby boomer era. there's this huge boom in a population of seniors in our city that will grow. i think by 2020, 60% o

technology as well this issue of what are you going to do with this growing number of unemployed and underemployed people particularly those concentrated in the ghettos as it were the people of color black americans who have a traditional. a revolutionary sort of rebellious legacy in the history of the country and that sort of confluence came together to create the policies of mass incarceration as we know them of course the drug war would come a little bit later providing a crucial fuel to that fire. people joke about how they need to go to prison to get health care and services you're really sad state of affairs your book talks about the horrible conditions and these prisons you've likened him to actual torture chambers what do you mean by that well i mean it's an interesting point i mean you pointed out for example the california prison. has five hundred people who have been in solitary confinement for over ten years now the council of europe in two thousand and eleven said that anything over fourteen days in solitary confinement should be considered so that's just one example twenty five thous

show how resilience the consumer is but it is tired and ties into the fact it is not working or underemployed so that will drag on the economy. there is a connection will be go into syria? it impacts every sector of our e economy, airline tickets go up, a transportation, the cost of goods such as chemicals. the economy could weigh heavy if we do straight to -- start to strike and syria gerri: what are you concerned about for the future for this economy and markets? a lot of people wait for that market with the economy crystallizes, what is it your crystal ball? >> when i think back to one year ago as we went into the fourth quarter of last year we felt the head winds coming out of washington and we were all talking about the fiscal cliff. a potential huge cliff cut off with spending and higher taxes. here we are again when year later headed into the fourth quarter again facing uncertainty and risk. part of that comes from syria with how congress will respond to the issue or how the president will respond or the the labor market news this morning and against another debt limit fight. gerri: i

people who graduated last five years are underemployed so people are frustrated with this and everyonele are focused on social issues, that is three years ago because of what has happened under this administration, these policies young people are focused on how am i going to find a job, they for college, how are we as a generation going to survive. that is why we have an opportunity to reach out to those people and congress should be fighting more for these folks because we are in a great use the depression. stuart: a year the republican candidate in your congressional district or will you find a primary first? >> we have overwhelming support in my primary. we don't expect it to be competitive. stuart: when you are in, you are the guy. >> at this point yes. we have been blessed to have support from the old republican establishment which has been a surprise to me but it isn't urging that my party gets it. we have to go to different candidates with a fresh message and a fresh approach of we want to stay relevant and this is one way we can, start fighting for vulnerable people in our coun

holding onto jobs both because they are unemployed and underemployed. >> wouldn't be the way for business would be to try ocreate jobs the places who are really the job creators? >> well let's be clear. because the job creators are on main street not wall street. wall street has proved itself to be a job killer of historic proportion. but obviously we should have policies that support the economy and support actual growing businesses. what we have now is a lack of the supply of credit, to the real economy, but that's not because of government policies. it's because there's fundamentally a lack of demand from main street largely because of not just unemployment. the deleveraging at the personal household level and the great concern the american people still have about their financial condition which is warranted based on all the economic factors that's -- >> but would argue that we still have a very high corporate tax rate, higher than the industrialized world. our final question for you, there have been calls for conservative and liberals, very few have been prosecuted in your opinion has

certain areas than other areas with still double digit unemployment levels that is not counting the underemployed are those who are out looking for jobs. is a bifurcated economy and growing with that have us and have nots the united states has been as successful as it has been from the expanding middle class that is happening and contracting in other parts another factoid in 2006 areas of 26% of gdp it is extraordinary how quickly things are changing in our economic strength goes from one certain area into others in the chains almost every level, operate as a country. >> one reason wrist a coded does well is part of the new growth area so what degree is it the organic raw materials for fiscal management? >> that is a great question. without a doubt his enormous challenge from the national gas revolution the energy revolution but there other things that are happening to which are you have the derivative defect production cost for manufacturers finally becoming more competitive in the west and other parts of the world so chemical companies say it cost 20% of the production cost of the u.s. as a doz

. >> i think the more important stat is the underemployed people.eople who can't get full-time work who want it and need it that's the real key. >> when we go to that level, we are talking about 23 million americans either out of work, under employed or simply given up working. >> when they give up working they get 40 ground in entitlements. did you see the poverty piece we did last night. everybody has colored tvs and air conditioners and washer and dryers. >> god bless. what the left has got to do is accommodate their own thinking to new circumstances. they talk about joblessness or poverty as if it were analogous to 1965 it's nonsense, it's quite a different thing, what they should be focusing is on is public education that's the great equalizeer this can't do that reason admit poor. no parent pushing the kids to learn and dump it on the teachers the republic party has not come to terms. >> they will not we are doing this campaign that the family dissolution, particularly in the poorer precincts, vote black and white and hispanic. doesn't matter

people getting jobs are what we would call underemployed. >> wow.gh situation right now. >> it is. it's a very hard for the american worker. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> all right. that will do it for us today. heather, good to join you. >> nice to be with you on this saturday. i am healther childers. "a healthy you & carol alt" debuts after the break. looking forward to that. it's one of our new programs. >> i had a chance to talk to her earlier, she's beautiful and brainy. she has a lot to offer. >> she's going to share with us how she's so beautiful and healthy. >> healthy mind, body and spirit. she's got it all. >> bye, have a great day. ♪ ho ho ho [ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up. some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant [ alarm sound for malfunctioning printer ] [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you've learned a thing or two. [ metal clanks ] ♪ this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so why let erectile dysfunction ge