there are still 10.6 million unfilled positions. people feel empowered. and they should because the job market is tight. if they re not happy with what they re doing. so i think quit rates will be high for a long time to come. as omicron sweeps the country, this silence is what restaurant owners are facing. michael dorf ceo of city winery says he is doing everything to keep the staff he has left, even with less business. we re still hiring as ironic as that is. he normally operates with 1,200 employees across his restaurant and music venues. we re only up to about 950 around the country. reporter: have you seen people quitting at a higher rate than usual? yeah, for sure. we see people quit on the spot. reporter: he says he has risen wages to above $15 an hour
describe the last year in one word, indefensible. crisis after crisis for the american people. hard working families are suffering from an economic crisis, energy crisis, a border crisis, education crisis, national security crisis. add in the american rescue plan the president will tout as a success, republicans say it added to inflation and also paid people not to work. they are trying to get 10.6 million jobs back, you know, filled in this country, john. john: we look forward to the questions on the economy in under two hours. ed, thank you. the disaster down at the southern border dominating much of the president s first year in office. sandra: the problems, john, playing out in american communities today. dan springer is live in texas with an update one year into the presidency, dan. yeah, sandra, another tragic loss of life during a border
answer. people were given a lot of money during the pandemic, a lot of stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, they still have health concerns and a lot don t want to go back to the old jobs they had. you can see on this chart notwithstanding that we had 6.4 million jobs created last year compared to an estimate of 4.7. if you look back, this chart goes back to 1951. it is 50% more jobs than have ever been created in a single year. to your point, there s still 10.6 million open jobs in this country, a record number of jobs. wow. and 2.3 million people have left the labor force, all to your point, not actively looking. let s look before you finish on a couple of noneconomic things that happened last year to president biden. so first we all know build back better isn t passing, but you can see in this chart a way to sort of look at the overall picture which is the fact congress has been doing less and less every year. if you go back to the 1980s it was passing 230 bill as year.
the jobless claims are due out this afternoon. that s where i wanted to go next. americans continue to quit their jobs in record numbers as the labor market grows hotter this holiday season. what do you make of this? is this a sign the economy has maintained its momentum despite the pandemic? what is the labor department saying? so the labor department has come out and said that at the end of october, more than 11 million job openings were reported in the u.s. this is up from 10.6 million a month earlier. so clearly people have been leaving their jobs. another measure of how difficult it is to find workers has hit another record high. in terms of what this means, there s a lot of different interpretations, but one interesting one that s been gaining momentum is this idea we could be on the verge of a pendulum shift. morgan stanley has come out saying this could be a point where the power shifts back to labor. or the past decades we ve seen
e the fda now said to be ready to give its approval to mixing covid vaccines when you get a booster shot. the agency says it s generally preferable to get the same brand as your initial vaccine when you get the initial shot but that getting a different brand is fine, too. with me to share her insights and expertise is dr. leana wen, the former baltimore city health commissioner. appreciate your time. i want to put up for our viewers just to show, since boosters became available, fires pfizer and now the other advance evens. more than 10.6 million americans have said, great, let me get a booster shot. on this question of mixing and matching, you received the j&j vaccine when you get a booster will you get j&j or go to pfizer