0 happening now in the "newsroom" breaking right now a new look at america's economy. who is hiring and where? also security in sochi. threats of violence as the opening ceremonies just two hours away. anxiety running high as the world's eye turns to russia. straight ahead, how safe is the american team? >> our job here is to just focus on what we can control. plus leno's last night. >> this has been the greatest 22 years of my life. >> choking back tears as he took the stage. >> i don't like good-byes. >> inviting his very first guest billy crystal back for one more time. you're live in the cnn "newsroom". good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. paychecks and politics, we begin this hour with breaking news about the economy and the nation's struggling skbloorkts. minutes ago we learned 113 show you jobs were created in january. the nation's jobless rate slides a bit to 6.6% but that too is cause for concern. we'll break this down for you this morning. our chief business correspondent christine romans is in new york along with financial expert monica, david wessell and jim acosta. christina, i want to start with you. these were disappointing numbers. >> reporter: they are. perspective servicing. 6.6% on the jobless rate. better than 10% at the peak of the crisis but not good enough for where we are right now. i want to show you these important numbers. still have 10.2 million people unemployed. 3.6 million people out of work for six months or longer. i'm very concerned about that part of the labor market. things are not getting better for the long term unemployed and we're hearing and seeing a bias against those people who have been out of work for a long time. people who are hiring those who are newly unemployed. you have a labor force participation rate of 63%. it means too many working age americans are not working. that number way too low, still shows you and economy that's leaving a huge, huge swath of americans behind. >> let's parse this out further. david, is there any silver lining to this? >> it is. i agree it's a disappointing number. the labor department does two surveys every month. one of them of employers ander to of households. the household survey is the one that brings us the unemployment rate and the numbers there are actually encouraging. more people working. a higher fraction of people working that labor force participation rate super. that is the silver lining. it's very confusing, but when you go to households, more people seem to be working and it's not because people are dropping out of the labor market but the unemployment rate came down. >> at least there's something to feel positive about. monica i want to talk to you about the long term unemployed and what the answer is. we know the senate failed to move forward a bill that would have extended long term unemployment for three months. what's the answer? >> well, i think if the question is how do we create jobs you have to look at where are the jobs coming from? in the last two years the bulk of the new job development has been coming from private employers and if you look at private payroll data it shows you that the bulk of the jobs are being created by companies with less than 500 employees. so if the answer is small business, then we really need to start asking questions of small business owners, what can we do to make their lives better, what can we do to help them hire more people and i think that's hats going to help us create more jobs and start lifting up economic mobility in this country again. >> let's head out to jim acosta. he's at the white house this morning. too soon for any sort of response. what do you suppose the president's people will say? >> that's right. no official response from the white house yet but consider what they said last month. this is the second disappointing jobs report in a row after last month's disappointing jobs report. the white house said that it was focused on the future. it acknowledged last month was less than expected. i imagine the white house will say much of the same today although the president or the white house will also say look 8 million, roughly 8 million jobs have been created since 2009, 2010, and that they are dpousd on these executive actions that the president has been working on these last couple of weeks. you heard christine romans talk about the long term unemployed. the president had a meeting over here at the white house getting big companies to basically say listen we're not going to discriminate against long term unemployed again. his legislative agenda when it comes to the economy has been stymied up on capitol hill. last few days, immigration reform, long term one employment benefits, that's not go anywhere on capitol hill. so time after time after time the president is seeing his legislative agenda stalled and so this morning house speaker john boehner is out with another press release saying where are the jobs mr. president and you'll hear republicans throughout the day today say well go ahead and sign the keystone pipeline if you want to use your pen mr. president sign that into law let's get that one going. so at this point, carol, the big question here in washington is can this president cut a deal up on capitol hill? i think that's the big question. can he start to perhaps make some compromises here, maybe give the republicans keystone in exchange for some of these other items. >> thanks. how will the markets react to today's jobs numbers? we'll have a live report four when the opening people rings at 9:30 eastern. all eyes on sochi today with the olympics opening ceremony beginning in just about two hours. but apparently some russian eyes are to discussion on visitors in their hotel rooms. the "wall street journal" is reporting the russians are spying on olympic visitors. in response to a question about the condition of hotel rooms, the russian deputy prime minister told the "wall street journal," quote, we have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day. end quote. makes you wonder, doesn't it. we'll have much more on that angle later this hour. there are new terror concerns the report this morning. here's jim sciutto. >> reporter: cnn has learned u.s. authorities is working with russia and other countries to disrupt several plots related to the olympics. beyond the toothpaste tube terror threat it sparked a warning to airlines flying to the games. >> there are some very specific threat leads that we have, but at the same time it's difficult to ascertain whether this is aspirational or operational. >> reporter: u.s. officials are concerned the intelligence regarding the threat of attackers using toothpaste or cosmetic tubes to hide explosives originated from the group led by this man. he leads chechen terrorists. >> the leader of the chechen rebel extremist, that's where this plot hatched out of. >> reporter: while u.s. officials have increased confidence about security inside the olympic venue, transportation hubs leading to the games including planes, trains and automobiles are still seen as softer targets and more vulnerable. russia's deputy prime minister insisted sochi is safe. >> translator: i would like to repeat once again that the level of security in the city of sochi is not worse than new york, london, washington or boston. >> reporter: that is little reassurance to some. chechen terrorists have struck in the air before. black widow bombers are believed to have brought down two jets in rue shane 2004. the security focus may make it more difficult for a similar plot to succeed again. >> i can't think of a case where there's been a series warning publicly and then something actually happened. >> reporter: concern about the toothpaste threat led french officials to arrest two chechen women in france. there are continuing concerns about intelligence cooperation with the russians particularly pertaining to domestic threats inside russia. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. the actual games began even before the opening ceremony qualifying rounds took place thursday in team figure skating, slopestyle and women's freestyle skiing. athletes say they are focusing on the games not terror threats. >> i don't think anybody up here has felt any danger since we've been here, so we're pretty confident that we'll be able to focus on our skiing and competing, and not let those outside influences really bother or worry us. it's not something that i'm really focused own and i think i can say the same for the rest of my teammates up here. >> one more thing about the olympic games. this may surprise you since president putin banned any promotion of gay activity. here's the surprise. russians have added to the opening ceremonies pre-show. ♪ this is the russian female pop duo tattoo. they are known for their lesbian kisses in public. you say what? peyton walsh is in sochi. this is a surprise. >> reporter: i think it certainly meant to be. you point out tattoo nearly a decade ago managed to get global fame from really the lesbian kiss you saw in the video. neither is lesbian and in their career they have not been promoting gay rights. not clear how prominent they will be. there's a suggestion they will perform. their song "they won't get us" will not enter the arena. this is some bid to soften the criticism of the kremlin's pretty anti-gay stance in this recent legislation which has caused outcry from many of the attendees and many human rights groups on the outside of the games too. probably as much to change the tone of moscow's message towards the world's population but at the end of the day it may be a symbol to seem they are sympathetic. >> if you logged on to google this morning, you saw this. google doodle is celebrating the olympics by taking a stance against russia's anti-gay laws. google cites the olympic charter that stands up for all athletes regardless of sexual orientation by saying quote sport is a human right. still to come in the "newsroom" aol employees get their retirement benefits slashed. the ceo is blaming two sick babies and obamacare. we'll explain. 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