harry reid, the majority leader will have a new proposal. a quote-unquote compromised that he ll unveil tomorrow. last week the democrats had their version, the republicans had their version. there was a vote on wednesday or thursday. both versions went down in flames. there s still positions back and forth. the way things go in washington, unfortunately, right down to the last minute. that will be christmas eve at this point the way things are going. we ll see what harry reid put forward tomorrow. it is the economy, you know. you re talking about the polls, the republican side. what it all boils down to is the economy. the president getting good news on the unemployment numbers. politically, not to say economically. there are still 13.3 million people unemployed. the unemployment going down to 8.6%. republicans will continue to hammer the president on the economy and also on meet the press, we had the chairman of the republican national
african-american up employment is 15. 5%. hispanic unemployment, 11.4%, whites 7.6%. part of the reason the rate sank so randy in november is because 315,000 americans stopped looking for work. there are still 13.3 million meshes wh es who are looking fo and can t find it. wall street saw its best week in more than two years. the drop in the unemploy mementt the stock market up. we re waiting for herman cain s announcement on the future of his campaign. it s live from atlanta where we re live as well. we ll have more after a short break. usa prime credit. this peggy.
politically and economically for the obama administration. we have to mention there are still 13.3 million americans who are out of work, and looking for work. yesterday s news was certainly welcome by the president. they will push for the congress and republicans to push the payroll tax cut due to expire the end of the year. let s look at the numbers. leisure and hospitality. health care, 17,000. one fly in the ointment there, construction jobs down 12,000. if you look at the ethnic breakdown. still troubling news for minorities in these figure. the national average at 8.6%. african-american unemployment. 15.5%. hispanic, 11.4. asians at 6.5. and one more fly in the ointment finally. 300,000 people. 315,000 to be exact over the course of the last month have simply given up looking for
cautiously expressing some consideration, but they must be delighted. well, i think that they are, but no one, martin, is declaring it a christmas miracle just yet. that little white behind you, notwithstanding. the white house has always been very careful, ever since the first year, the first spring that we went through here, when people started talking about green shoots in the economy. obviously, that didn t happen. what has ensued is an ever-rising unemployment rate, getting up near 10%, at one point, it has steadily dropped. but each month, the news is just incremental. it ticks up a tenth of a point, goes down a tenth of a point. a drop of 4/10 today, certainly a big deal here at the white house. still very cautious, saying the economy is healing, but there s a long way to go for 13.3 million people still out of work. the president appeared earlier today. he was with president clinton, as it happens, talking about one of his green initiatives under the we can t wait rubric. but
remarks to sort of riff off of the jobs numbers and push for that bill extending the payroll tax cut. by the white house estimations, if it is extended for at year, it would mean another million jobs. and of course, two versions of that extension and expansion were defeated last night in the senate. and one thing that was very surprising was senator republicans voted against their own proposal, at least a majority of them did. nbc s mike viqueira at the white house. accidentally mentioning his own salary of $13.3 million. thanks so much. and we ll be right back to clear the air. b