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March Jobs Report; Brandon Scott is Interviewed about Biden's Visit; Teachers Have Grim Outlook on Public Education; Businesses Cash in on Eclipse. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:30:00]

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): It wasn't enough to switch the - they weren't enough - they were willing to accept the political culture and the elitism of the Democrat Party telling people how to live their lives over the brashness and negativity and of the - the hurtful things and the attitude, if you will, that Donald Trump brings to the table. I mean that's it. Unfortunately, it's not about policy on either side. It's not about really, you know, debt - managing the dead or controlling the border or inflation. Those are real issues that people care about. But those are the issues that - that are bubbling to the top a little bit, but at the end of the day, if Trump doesn't cross the finish line, it's because America wants to at least have some sense of going forward and not reliving the past.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Governor, thank you so much for coming on. I know you are talking about real issues affecting real people's lives in a real way. You're dealing with some storm recovery in your state right now. So, thank you for jumping on to take - to take some time because I know you've got some pressing issues facing you right now.

SUNUNU: You bet. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was a really interesting discussion.

All right, a new study finds that nearly half of the school teachers in the country will be looking for new careers this year. Why they say parents are driving them out of the profession. And then Caitlin Clark back on the court with a spot on the national championship on the line. Standing in her way, just the most successful program of all time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:36]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, the most hurricanes ever predicted in a preseason forecast. Scientist at Colorado State say there could be as many as 11 hurricanes when the season starts in June. The previous high for this outlook was nine.

The Ellis Island Museum is getting a makeover. The 125-year-old landmark has served as the gateway for millions of immigrants entering the United States. As part of the project, people will be able to research their family history on site. The renovation comes with a $100 million price tag.

The women's final four begins tonight in Cleveland. Here is what is on the line. Actually, I think we need to say here's what's going to be on TV. NC State takes on top seeded undefeated South Carolina at 7:00 and then Iowa faces off with UConn. Iowa's Caitlin Clark, obviously, looking for a national title.

Meanwhile, NC State and UConn have a chance to face off against each other in both the men's and women's national championships. The men's final four is tomorrow.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, so this just in, and breaking just moments ago, new data and a fresh look at the strength of the jobs market. The March jobs report just out and the economy added 303,000 jobs last month, which is higher than basically everyone expected.

CNN's Rahel Solomon has much more on this. She's with us now.

What is in here?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so that's one way to put it. Certainly higher than most were expecting. The expectation had been about 200,000. So, this is much stronger than expected.

And, Kate, essentially the trend just keeps on trending.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Right.

SOLOMON: I mean this is the 39th month of positive job growth. One of the longest streaks in history. So, when you look at the unemployment rate, that actually kicked down to 3.8 percent. If that sounds familiar, it's because it is. We have been in a really tight range of unemployment below 4 percent for more than two years.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: So that trend also continued.

I want to talk about revisions, which, Kate, you and I don't normally talk about so early.

BOLDUAN: But it's been wild. The revisions have been big in months past.

SOLOMON: The revisions have been big except in this report.

BOLDUAN: OK.

SOLOMON: This is why I think it's so interesting. So we've almost exclusively seen revisions lower.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: And sometimes quite significantly. Not so much this time. So, actually, the month of February, I want to say, was revised - actually, no, the month of January was revised up by 27,000.

BOLDUAN: Interesting.

SOLOMON: I can't remember the last time I said that covering jobs. And then February was revised down, but only by about 5,000.

So, basically, what that means is that the strength of the economy, the solidness that we have seen with the economy, appears to be what it is.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: I mean it appears to be what we have seen.

I want to talk also about job gains in terms of sectors because we've seen this sort of concentration in terms of where a lot of the job gains have been, the big three, if you want to call it that. So, government, health care, leisure and hospitality.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SOLOMON: That's where most of the gains have been concentrated. And we saw a continuation of that, but we're also still seeing some broadening. So, health care in the month of March adding 72,000 jobs. This is one of those industries you might hear called the ketchup sector. Still catching up after Covid. Still catching up after the pandemic. Government also continuing to add to the clip of about 71,000 in construction. Obviously, there's some seasonal things happening here, but construction adding as well.

I'm really curious to see how the markets are responding to this because this is what the Fed might call a little too strong. It's a strong job market certainly for the American worker. Some might say it's a little - it's a little strong. It's a little strong.

BOLDUAN: And now continuing with the, we have no idea, and everyone will wait to see what the - what the Fed then does with this added to everything else.

SOLOMON: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: This is an interesting one.

SOLOMON: Yes. Totally.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Rahel. Thanks for running it.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Sara. SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining me now to discuss the jobs report further is CNN economics and political commentator, and "Washington Post" opinion columnist, Catherine Rampell.

Thank you so much for being here. I know you're furiously going over these numbers.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

SIDNER: But wow. I mean the expectation from economists was, what, 200,000 jobs. We're now at 303,000 jobs. What does this tell you?

RAMPELL: It tells you that the job market - the economy writ large, in fact, is doing way better than expected. It's funny, month after month we keep getting surprised by how strong the jobs numbers are, as well as a fair number of other economic indicators. And this is an economy that just won't quit.

SIDNER: When you look at this, what do you think is sort of driving this growth?

RAMPELL: I think there are a few things going on. One undoubtedly is immigration. I know that there is this hot button devise -

SIDNER: It's the number one issue, yes.

RAMPELL: Divisive argument about what to do, how do we get the immigration lower.

[08:40:03]

What if we accepted the premise that maybe this has been a gift to the economy, not only in the sense that immigrants historically have had higher rates of entrepreneurship, as well as other contributions to scientific innovation and things like that. If you just look at the number of jobs that are being created by immigrants, or are being filled by immigrants, it's really astounding. That's partly because - and, in fact, if you look at the number of jobs that we have today versus pre-pandemic, the net growth is entirely accounted for by immigrants.

SIDNER: Wow.

RAMPELL: And that's partly because native-born Americans are disproportionately older, so they're more likely to be retiring. And the number of younger native-born Americans who are entering the labor force, who are taking jobs, is not fully offsetting those who are retiring. But you have a lot of working age immigrants coming in here. And that's part of the reason why we keep seeing these upside surprises in the number of jobs being created.

SIDNER: That's a really interesting point that the surge of immigration, and a surge of immigrants is actually bolstering the economy in a really significant way.

Can you talk about, you know, we looked at some of the different jobs that have really gone up, construction, hospitality. What about hospitality? Because a lot of people, for - from a very long time watching all these restaurants close because of the pandemic, where are we now? Are we at pre-pandemic levels?

RAMPELL: Yes, we have finally, finally recovered all of the jobs lost on net at the beginning of the pandemic in leisure and hospitality.

SIDNER: Wow.

RAMPELL: So, that means restaurants, bars, hotels, et cetera. That's quite significant. Ideally, we would have more jobs than we had at the beginning of the pandemic today because the population has grown, of course, but it's great that we've recovered all of the ground lost. It's, obviously, four years on. It's been quite a while. But that's quite a significant milestone.

SIDNER: Of course people are looking at inflation. You know it always kills me that when the economy is booming that Wall Street worries about it in some ways. But, of course, inflation is being watched. People are concerned about it, as well as interest rates. What do you think is going to happen?

RAMPELL: Well, these things are - they're somewhat trade-offs -

SIDNER: Yes.

RAMPELL: Between having a really hot jobs market and having reduced inflation or cooling inflation. It sounds like the higher jobs numbers, wage growth, et cetera, would be unequivocally good news. And in some sense it is very, very good news. But you could imagine the Fed saying, look, this Fed - this economy is a little bit hotter than we want it to be. Maybe it's not quite time to start cutting interest rates, which is usually something you do when the economy is slowing down a little bit.

SIDNER: Right, stagnating.

RAMPELL: Right. And needs a little bit of stimulus. So, there's a question right now about what's going to happen to those interest rate cuts that right now are anticipated to happen about three times this year. And we'll be watching market today to see if markets are intuiting that maybe we're not going to - maybe we shouldn't expect those rate cuts. Maybe be the Fed is going to hold back.

But, you know, we'll be getting more data in before the next Fed meeting, including on inflation. So, there's quite a bit left to watch.

SIDNER: A lot to watch. But the big headline here is, 300,000 jobs is a heck of a lot. A hundred thousand more than economists initially expected. And we are in a hot economy.

RAMPELL: No sign of recession.

SIDNER: No sign at all.

RAMPELL: No sign of recession on the horizon.

SIDNER: Catherine Rampell, thank you so much.

We will discuss more on jobs and President Biden's messaging on the economy with acting Labor Secretary Julie Su next hour.

John.

BERMAN: All right, President Biden heads to Baltimore today to survey the damage from the devastating bridge collapse. And it comes as we're learning new information about a timeline to reopen the channel there.

And a total eclipse of the hut. I'm going to say that again, total eclipse of the hut. I'm only angry that I did not think of it. That slice of genius from Pizza Hut, just one of the many promotions around the total eclipse on Monday. Five minutes that will boost the U.S. economy by $1.5 billion.

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[08:48:37]

BERMAN: All right, President Biden is heading to Baltimore today to get a first-hand look at the destruction from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The president will meet with the families of the six workers who died last week. The Army Corps of Engineers says it plans to reopen the Port of Baltimore by the end of May.

With us now is the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being with us.

You will be with the president later today. What is it that you want him to see?

MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT (D), BALTIMORE: Well, we know that this president is a full believer and understands in Baltimore, but understands the significance of this tragedy, not just for those families, not just for the city of Baltimore, but for this entire country because of how important our port is. I want the president to see that devastation up close.

And then we want him, of course, to do what he always does when a tragedy happens, meet with those most directly impacted. And we're appreciative to have him here.

But understanding that the president and his team have been supporting us since the bridge collapsed unfortunately early that morning.

BERMAN: What does Baltimore need from the federal government?

SCOTT: Well, listen, the federal government - the president said he was going to move heaven and earth to help Baltimore. And he has done exactly that. His team has been on the ground. We have a wonderful, unified command with his team. Our fabulous governor, Governor Moore's team, my team, the counties and the county executives. [08:50:01]

And we had that great federal support we've had. I was with the SBA secretary. We've had Secretary Buttigieg here. We've had the full weight of the federal government here, and we know that's going to continue. All we need is to continue a great partnership that we've had with the president and his team through this tragedy and, quite frankly and honestly, throughout his term.

BERMAN: So, you do know that there are some national Republicans pushing back on the idea of the federal government footing the bill for this. Ralph Norman said, quote, "the very thought of having the federal government pay for the Baltimore bridge is totally absurd." All caps, "this exemplifies the old slogan, robbing Peter to pay Paul."

Congressman Dan Meuser called the plan "outrageous." Said, "we just can't take the easy route all the time and just try to spend the taxpayers' money."

What do you say to these Republican lawmakers?

SCOTT: Yes, I say that they are just loud - loud and wrong part of the Republican Party. We know that there were smart, willing and understanding knowing Republicans will be supportive because they know this is the number one port in the country for roll-on, roll-off. They know that not having that farming equipment going out to the Midwest is not just going to hit - hurt Democratic cities or Democratic states. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is an American issue. An American port that is supporting American workers, not just here in Baltimore, by across the country.

But I've spoken with my congressional leaders of both - both of my senators, Van Hollen and Senator Cardin who said they're talking to folks. Even like Senator McConnell, who understands the importance of my congressman, Congressmen Mfume, speaking with the speaker of the House, and he understands the importance of this issue. And we're not going to allow the loud folks who take us away and distract us away, which is an American tragedy that is impacting not just my great city of Baltimore, but cities and counties in places around the country.

BERMAN: What's the latest on when you think the channel will be open for commercial traffic to get some of those commercial ships that are stuck inside out and some of the ones outside in?

SCOTT: Well, we have the timeline from the Army Corps of Engineers. And they're going to work towards that timeline each and every day. But I want everyone again to understand how complex it is. What you see in those images above ground is only exacerbated when you go above water. It's only exacerbated when you go below. This records is so mangled and tangled, it's like a piece of Jenga, and they're going to be very precise, they're going to move very quickly, but also safely and responsibly through this so that we don't injure or lose anyone else. And we will get the channel open as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible as well.

BERMAN: All right, Mayor Brandon Scott from Baltimore, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, America's teachers are stressed out and unhappy. This is the picture being painted right now by a new Pew research survey finding an overwhelming 82 percent of teachers not only say the public - public school system is worse now than just five years ago, more than half also say they are not optimistic about the next five years. These findings are based on a survey conducted last fall of more than 2,500 public k-12 teachers in the United States.

Let's learn more about what's in here and driving this. Athena Jones has been looking into it.

What is behind this grim outlook?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate.

It truly is a grim outlook. And, look, this survey of 2,500 K-12 teachers provide solid evidence to what we've been reading about and talking about and hearing about anecdotally for some time now. A lot of this is about pandemic learning loss and changes after the pandemic. Teachers believed that there are long-lasting effects of this pandemic, not only on academic achievement, but also on behavior.

And we've been talking about learning loss and citing test scores for some time. But this goes beyond academic achievement. We're looking at behavior, at teacher's, interactions with parents, and that sort of thing. So, let's dig into this.

We know that a vast majority, or large majorities, I should say, of teachers say their job is frequently stressful. I think - I believe we have a number we can put up on the screen, Seventy-seven percent say their job is frequently stressful. Sixty-eight percent say it's frequently overwhelming. And 70 percent of teachers say their school is very or somewhat understaffed. And, in fact, resources, access to resources, staffing, of course, but also resources for teachers to have training or to learn new skills. They are also complained about those things.

When it comes to the - their job satisfaction overall, teachers are less satisfied than U.S. workers in general. Only a third, 33 percent of teachers say they are extremely or very satisfied. And that number for U.S. workers is more - is 51 percent. So, those are just some of the figures. There's a lot of numbers in - in this - in this - in this survey.

One thing I should note is that you talk about job satisfaction. Three in ten teachers are considering - they say it's at least somewhat likely they will look for a new job this year. And of the ones looking for new jobs, 69 percent say it will be outside of teaching altogether.

[08:55:04]

One of the complaints we also are hearing from teachers and seeing from teachers in this survey is that parents - they say parents are doing too little to hold their children accountable when it comes to misbehavior in schools, 79 percent say that. Nearly 70 percent say parents do too little to help their teachers with their homework. Teachers say that poverty, chronic absenteeism, and mental health issue, anxiety and depression, are also major problems in their schools.

So, taken altogether, it's not a good - not a pretty picture, we should say. You talked about the 82 percent who say that teaching has gotten worse, or public education has gotten worse in the last five years, Fifty - only 50 - a little over 50 percent say it will be worse five years from now. So, teachers need a lot of help right now.

You can see there, the current political climate is cited by 60 percent of teachers as one of the issues that has led to the worsening of the state of public education and the lasting impact of the pandemic, which has affected not just grades and test scores, but also behavior in classrooms.

A large - a large percentage of teachers, 68 percent, say they've experienced verbal abuse from students. So, there's a lot in this. But the bottom line is that teachers are stressed out. They're overwhelmed. They're feeling underpaid. Don't have enough resources and support. And about three in ten say it's at least somewhat likely they will look for a new job this school year, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and from - and from the numbers and the data, there's not one - clearly not one fix. This is like a systemic look and review and reset that they feel that they need.

Along the same - same topic, very different - very - maybe very different focus. The White House just announced this week that they're going to hold the guess it would be the very first state dinner, if you will, for teachers - their teachers of the year celebration. What's this about?

JONES: That is right. This is going to be the first time the White House holds a state dinner for teachers. It's going to be May 1st. As you mentioned, they - they hold a national teacher of the year event at the White House every year. But this celebration will welcome teachers of the year from all 50 states who will be coming to the White House to be recognized in this special way.

And what - part of this is that, you know, of course the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, is herself a teacher. She teaches at a community college. And so this is a way to highlight and recognize teachers who are doing a good job amid a very difficult time period dealing with the learning loss from the pandemic and all of the other issues, like staffing and resources that we just cited. So, positive news for some of those teachers, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and always a good - and always - it is always a good time to put a spotlight on great teachers, that's for sure.

Hat tip to my daughters' teachers who do a lot for me every day.

Athena, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: I was going to say the same thing.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SIDNER: Like, I loved my teachers. Mrs. Little, Mr. Davis, like, you know?

BOLDUAN: Oh, I - like my first journalism teacher in high school.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: She was - she and I have stayed in touch for years. Like they have such an impact.

SIDNER: I - they do. And deserve a little kudos.

All right, the frenzy to be in the right place at the right time to see the total eclipse has begun. Millions are expected to travel to get the best possible view of the sun slicing across the U.S. for just a few minutes on Monday. But those few minutes can mean a heck of a lot of money for businesses in the path of totality.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is joining us now. It looks like she is in the path of totality right now, but it is just really early in Los Angeles.

We, just a few minutes ago, saw Rosa Flores, who said she bought a bunch of t-shirts and a hat and Bandera, Texas, which is in the path of totality. What have you been seeing? She's boosting their whole economy. I know she's still spending. What have you been seeing businesses try to do to try to boost their numbers?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, they're doing it. And Rosa looked awesome this morning. I did see her while I was getting ready to come out here and talk to you. And that's exactly what is boosting the economy all around the country because we're talking about less than five minutes of when we will see totality for different places along the country. And we are seeing, in those areas, they are making a ton of money. And it's big companies to little company. You've got airlines. You've got Delta and Southwest offering special flights that will go along the path of totality. You've got United giving away special glasses so that you can look at it for their flights that are going through the path totality.

If you take a look at Airbnb, they have a map showing where they are totally sold out. Interestingly enough, it looks almost exactly like the path of totality. So, you're seeing it in many different ways that companies are taking advantage of this. Up to one-and-a-half billion dollars of economic energy being put into this eclipse for something less than five minutes. And you're seeing in Texas, they're going to have a lot of that. They've been sold out since last year in many places like Dallas for their hotel rooms. And you're seeing small companies, like in Carbondale, Illinois, where

they actually got the 2017 eclipse as well, they are also getting geared up and they are selling out.

[09:00:06]

Some - one little boutique doing eclipse cookies.