0 >> right now, more americans are finding work. november job numbers are in, and the news is good. you're going to hear why the unemployment rate is so significant and what it says about the strength of the u.s. economic recovery. also right now, a treacherous storm is leaving a huge a huge section of the united states under a thick coat of ice. states of emergency are in effect from the texas to tennessee. other states are getting hit with heavy snow and bone-chilling temperatures. we'll take you to the storm zone. and right now, crowds are gathered outside nelson mandela's home in south africa. the country and the world are remembering him for his courage, his strength and his dignity. we're going live to south africa and we'll also speak with the former secretary of state, colin powell. >> the hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. big news for the u.s. economy today. hiring is up. unemployment is down. the jobs numbers for november were released this morning and they're much stronger than many analysts had been expecting. take a look. the economy added 203,000 jobs last month. that's 20,000 more than many of those economists had predicted. another surprise, the unemployment rate fell to 7% from the 7.3% a month earlier. that happens to be a five-year local and a real sign the economic recovery may be gaining some momentum. our christine romans is in new york watching all of these numbers for us. how significant are they, christine? >> it's significant, wolf. now you've got a trend in place for the year, you've got more than 2 million jobs on track to be created the best since 2005. it has been pretty in israble since the recession and the bubble burst and to say you're going to have jobs growth, on track for jobs growth, the best since 2005 is significant. you want it see these numbers, 200,000 a month and more and want to see it continue. the unemployment rate going down to 7%, wolf, the white house acknowledges that one of the big reasons, the big reason why it went down to 7% is because people newly unemployed were having an easier time finding a job. the long-term unemployed still having a problem. the underemployed, the real unemployment rate, 13.2%, people out of work, want to be working full-time, some of them want to working full-time but they aren't. here's the really good news. i saw gains in transportation, warehousing, retail leisure, but also in manufacturing. best manufacturing job growth we've seen in a very long time. and that trend has been pretty good. it's all about the trends always, right? you've seen these trends where you've seen slowly building is confidence. ed add into this car sales earlier this week were good. gdp with a few caveats was good. new home sales was good. this gives the fed ammunition to start talking about the taper, taking off the training wheels of the american economy sometime next year. >> that would discourage investors. christine, thanks very much. wall street is welcoming the positive jobs report. the s&p 500, the dow, nasdaq all bounced back today into positive territory after four days of losses. the dow jones industrials you see up 178 points right now. so we're seeing stock gains, jobs gains, a recovering economy, a decline in the unemployment rate. let's discuss what's going on with the president of the policy group american action forum. good republican economist. right? >> yes. >> you must be thrilled that the economy seems to be turning around. are you thrilled about that? >> you should be happy. this is the first time we've had a report that that had the unemployment rate come down for the right reason, not people giving up but instead finding jobs. we saw hours and wages go up. part time work went down. it was the breadth of the strength that made this such a good report. we hope we will see month after month of this. >> who deserves the credit for this? there is a president of the united states who has been saying, you know, trust me on the economy. >> give me six months of this and we'll start handing out gold stars. we're not out of the woods yet. a couple quarters of good growth and went back into a and swoon? >> 3.6% in the last quarter, that's pretty good. >> there's caveats. half of that was inventory growth. if it was just goods on shelves, it's not a good report. >> 200,000 jobs a month for the next few months, that will be encouraging? >> it would be encouraging. here are the two things to worry about still. economists are good at finding the dark cloud for a silver lining. number one, even at this pace, it's another 19 months till we get the unemployment rate down to 6%. we have a lot of ground to make up. the long-term unemployed, that's a tough problem. we're getting people back 0 work quickly but long-term unemployed have trouble finding work. >> it's it's lower than 9% but it should be 6, 5, 4, that would be a lot better. 200,000 jobs is good. the last few months we've been seeing positive jobs. it's been going on. take a look at wall street. they are thrilled right now but what's going on. when president bush took office, the dow jones was about 7,000. now it's 16,000. that's pretty impressive. >> that's very impressive. i'm not one who tracks dow daily as eight caer of the economy. >> if you're an envester, people are making money. >> here's the thing, if the fed now starts to taper this policy, investors shouldn't be scared. they're tapering for the right reason. the real economy, that which will give them dividends and capital gains is getting better. they should welcome that, not fear it. >> at the beginning of the year when the taxes went up on the wealthy, the republicans were saying this is going to undermine the overall growth of the u.s. economy because these are the job creators that you're taxing more. that hasn't necessarilily worked out like that so far. >> you capital applaud what we got through the first nine months of this year. we're seeing some strength. i don't think that move helped overall growth. did he it will for other reasons, fairness in taxation. i understand that. the thing weigh need to look for is whether the jobs we're now getting will come from new businesses. historically, new job growth comes from new business escreation. can we see that change, great. >> give me your forecast for 2014. >> i still think we're seeing modest growth, ramping up from 2% to something like 2.4, maybe 2.6. i would like to see us at 3.5. >> 3.6 is pretty impressive. >> we like the sound of 2.6. >> i'd like to see 5 or 6%. douglas aikin, thanks very much for coming in. always good to have you here at cnn. today people in south africa and around the world are plourning an iconic leader who went to prison, became a prisoner and then he became president of his country. we're learning new details about funeral plans for the former south african president nelson mandela. he will be buried a week from sunday and his body will lie? state in pretoria for three days next week. arwa damon is outs mide of pan della's house. people are celebrating the his life right now. >> reporter: they are. i mean, this is a nation in mourning but at the same time at least on this day, and this is just the first day where people are trying to grapple with their emotions, it's really into something of celebrating the man that he was and remembering exactly what it was that he had done to transform this country. when you think about it, for example, one college student who we met, a young black college student was telling us that his parents weren't able to go to school. his parents wouldn't even be able to come to this very neighborhood. and yet, he all of a sudden had these opportunities in his life because nelson mandela. it's been quite interesting here, too. a lot of families have been showing up. a lot of parents with very young children, too small to fully grasp what is happening but at the same time, at least one mother we spoke to felt that it was important to have her children be here. >> big event. i mean it's the passing of someone, an icon in our land. i want my children to be notice moment to see this is not going to happen again and they must be aware of how south africa comes together on these things. i wanted them to experience such an iconic moment that it shouldn't it be like where were you on the day where he found out. it should be that you were here with people, you know? >> a lot of people also, wolf, have been really talking about a lot of people, wolf, have been talking about how important nelson mandela's own decision process, his own evolution was and transforming him to be the individual that he ended up being. the fact that when he emerged from prison, he chose to reconcile rather than seek revenge. people saying this country could have easily turned into an iraq or syria. the fact that he was able to pull together all of the peoples of this diverse nation, a diversity reflected in the crowds behind us right now the. and a lot of people also saying that they felt a certain measure of joy and relief when they heard about his passing simply because finally, in the words of a number of individuals we spoke to, he was going to be able to meet his ancestors and rest in peace, wolf. >> i understand we're getting some more details on funeral arrangements, the funeral plans for nelson mandela. what are you learning, arwa? >> well, at this spaj, what we do know is that in his final moments, he would have been surrounded by family members and by tribal elders, as well. the funeral arrangements, everything happening surrounding it, very much a blend of tribal traditional culture, western cultures, as well. his body will not be displayed for the first five days. that is going to be taking place on the 10th of december, and during that initial process where he is in a mortuary, he will continue to be surrounded by tribal elders who will be talking to him, talking to the ancestors to facilitate the passage of his spirit from this world onto the next. there is then going to be a public memorial in. the soccer stadium where the world cup was played back in 2010. that is in fact, where nelson mandela made his last public appearance. eventually, he will be laid to rest in his hometown, his ancestral hometown. a lot of dignititories expected to arrive quite naturally to include president obama himself, as well, wolf. >> he and the family will be heading over there will the first lady of course, as well. thanks so much, arwa, for that report. remembering the life and the wisdom nelson mandela. my interview with the former president, bill clinton, he'll reflect on any son mandela, his friend. the lessons he personally learned from him. my interview with former president bill clinton on any son mandela, 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room". other news we're following including ice, lots of it falling on roads in about a dozen states right now. we're going to show you who's in the bulls eye of this brutal storm right after the break. too big.