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MYB: China cools housing market, report shows U.S. jobs slow to recover
CNN's Christine Romans reports on China's move to slow the country's housing market, and a new report showing jobs recovery in U.S. is slow.
MYB: February jobs report forecast and Facebook's facelift
Christine Romans is minding your business with the latest in U.S. stocks and world markets. With stocks consistently making gains, economists are watching to see if the momentum will continue. So far, it's still strong. Data out of Japan shows the country could be coming out of a recession, Romans says.
But all eyes are on the monthly jobs report coming out later this morning. "Economists surveyed by CNNMoney are predicting predicting 170,000 jobs added to the payrolls in February," Romans reports. "The unemployment rate expected to tick down to 7.8%." Romans says she'll be reading into how both the snowstorm in the Northeast in February and the sequester's might have affected this.
Attention is also on Facebook's upcoming facelift. The company is rolling out new features and an update on Facebook's newsfeed that is supposed to reduce clutter, Romans says. "We're told there's a backlog for the upgrade," she reports.
MYB: Your credit score could prevent you from getting a job – Christine Romans explains
Christine Romans is minding your business this morning. "You should know your own credit history," she says, because employers may be checking it, making potential employment even harder for those who need it the most.
President Obama says priority for U.S. is to become 'magnet' for manufacturing jobs
Christine Romans looks at President Obama's goal of making the U.S. a magnet for manufacturing jobs.
Would a minimum wage hike hurt economy? Christine Romans breaks down the numbers
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
After promising five years ago to raise the federal minimum wage, President Obama finally unveiled a plan to do so on Tuesday.
In his State of the Union address, Obama pressed to raise the hourly rate in stages to $9 an hour in 2015, up from the current $7.25, and index it to inflation. The change, should it become law, would boost the wages of 15 million Americans, according to the White House.
This morning on "Early Start," Christine Romans looks at President Obama's State of the Union proposal to raise the federal minimum wage and how it could affect the economy.
READ MORE: The impact of a $9 minimum wage
Reality check: President Obama jobs claims
Tonight, President Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address of his second term. And with an unemployment rate at 7.9%, we can take a guess and assume jobs will be a big focus in the speech. But it's a theme we've heard him talk about before.
This morning on "Early Start," Christine Romans not only looks at claims of the number of jobs created under President Obama's administration, but offers a reality check of whether those jobs are helping to strengthen the economy.
"Workampers" filling temporary jobs for Amazon.com; CNN's Casey Wian reports on these 'affluent homeless'
A growing number of Americans today are continuously traveling around the country for work, especially during the holiday season. These nomadic workers of sorts are called “workampers”, and they’ve became a vital part of the workforce at a giant Amazon.com warehouse in Nevada. Casey Wian has that story.
He follows Kellie and Walt Gunn as they drive to the company's massive customer fulfillment center, 30 miles outside Reno, Nevada. They call themselves "affluent homeless." Always on the road and living in an RV, these so-called workampers are two of “hundreds of thousands of semi-retired Americans...now traveling from seasonal job-to-job,” Wian reports. “At this Amazon warehouse, 250 workampers earn about $12 an hour, plus bonuses and overtime.”
"It's far more economical to live this way than it is in a stick house," Kellie says. “We don't spend near as much as we did when we were in a stick house. Just insurance alone and taxes on property and so forth,” Walt adds.
“This year, Amazon is hiring 50,000 seasonal workers at its 40 fulfillment centers nationwide,” Wian says. “Eleven hundred of them are Workampers…A small, but growing number of workampers are younger, forced out of jobs by the recession."
“With the economy the way it is, they have to work,” Walt says. “Well they're too young for Social Security, so they have no retirement,” Kellie adds. “When the economy dropped, they pretty much lost everything that they had. And so now they go from job to job."
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz offers advice for job creation: 'invest' to 'bring our manufacturing base back'
The United States is less than four weeks away from falling over the fiscal cliff when the nation faces automatic spending cuts and tax increases unless Congress is able to come to a deal averting it. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sat for an interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow and he tells her his thoughts about the looming crisis.
Schultz feels that unless a deal is made, the consequences will be far worse than last year's debt ceiling fight, when the U.S. credit rating was downgraded for the first time ever. His message to lawmakers is to quit playing politics and do right by the American people. Harlow comes to “Early Start” with more on her conversation with Schultz.
One piece of advice the coffee giant shares with Harlow regards job growth. “We know there's a large sum sitting on the balance sheet of some public companies overseas,” Schultz says. “Some people have said $2-3 trillion dollars. I don't know the exact numbers, but if we repatriated that money at a lower tax rate, people would bring the money back, but I would tie the repatriation to a mandate of having to create jobs or invest in manufacturing capital equipment that would bring our manufacturing base back, or begin to.”
ICYMI: Rep. Burgess (R-TX): Obama's bipartisanship is lacking, voters in a 'defensive crouch' waiting for the election
NOTE: This interview was conducted before the Oct. jobs report release.
With just four days left in the presidential race, the candidates are hitting the campaign trail with full force. This as the final jobs report before Election Day comes out this morning.
Republican Congressman from Texas, Michael Burgess, is the Chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus and a vocal Romney supporter. Rep. Burgess previews the report and his take on the race live from Fort Worth, Texas.
Rep. Burgess discusses whether the coming jobs report may affect the race, if as economists are predicting, the changes are small.
“You could argue that last month’s employment numbers were probably more important than this month’s,” Rep Burgess says. “A lot of people have taken advantage of early voting and the die has already been cast in their minds.” Rep Burgess doesn’t “expect these numbers to change a lot from last month’s”.
Rep. Burgess thinks voters in the country are “in a defensive crouch waiting for the election…waiting to see whether change is really going to come to America.”
ICYMI: How could October jobs report affect election? Redstate.com's Erick Erickson & GlobalGrind.com's Michael Skolnik weigh in
Redstate.com's Erick Erickson & GlobalGrind.com's Michael Skolnik on how the Oct. jobs report could affect the election.
