a lot of optimism that greece will reach a deal this weekend to keep it out of bankruptcy and in the eurozone. we are watching asian shares. they are mostly higher. they closed higher. shanghai composite up 4.5% today. it is a wild ride for the past few weeks for chinese stocks. the government efforts to stop the crash are working at least for today. new this morning, the biggest cosmetics merger. p&g is selling its perfume, hair care and makeup businesses. that means cover girl and max factor and the maker of calvin klein will scoop them up in a $12.5 billion deal. the sale is part of the p&g plan to shed the slow growing brands and focus on tide and pampers. jeb bush said americans need to work longer hours. here is the truth. americans already work pretty hard. the average workweek 34.4 hours. that s actually longer than
it will be scooped up in a $12.5 billion deal. it is a chance to focus on tide and pampers. jeb bush causing a stir this week when he said americans need to work longer hours. americans already work pretty hard. the average workweek 34.4 hours. that is longer than workers in other countries. americans get fewer vacation days and they don t use them all. i don t understand that. bush said he wants those stuck in part-time jobs to get full-time jobs. he was clarifying there. there are 6.5 million workers. it is why many say the unemployment rate is not so accurate. the under employment rate, the part-timer part-timers, is at 10.5%. it is not perfect. alison kosik, thanks so much. early start continues right now.
mm-hmm. it s basically impossible. the fact that people more people are trying to find a job would indicate they feel more optimistic perhaps about being able to find a job. and i ll give you another piece of data, and listen, the long-term unemployment rate, those unemployed for six months, 3.6 million, still obscenely too high. that said, the number did decline by 232,000 let me double-check that number. i m going off the headlines with yeah, down by 232,000 from december. so there was a slight drop in the long-term unemployment rate, a slight up tick in the labor force participation rate and average weekly hours held steady at 34.4 from december to january. so a few bright spots, not going to define this as a good jobs number, certainly coming in below the headline number. weather, obviously, will be blamed. weather has been excused by every ceo oh, it was too hot, too cold, it was just right. they use it
the president s arrival. right now if rates are 34.4% and if congress doesn t act by july 1st, they could rise to 6.8%. this affects 7 million people, 7 million college students and as you might expect, if those interest rates double, can you imagine the student loan payments? let s listen to the president. one of my favorite things about the job is that i get to spend some time with remarkable young people from all across the country. it inspires me. it makes me feel good. those of you who have had to put on suits and ties and show up at the white houses first thing on a friday morning may not feel the way i do. but i appreciate all of you being here. you cleaned up very well and these students and graduates are here to talk about something that matters to millions of
some of the reason that dropped is people have dropped out of the work force but were discouraged. the other part is we have seen people who are getting older and retiring. the one thing i could say if nit picking is the average hourly earnings ticked down by a penny to $23.58 and hours worked unchanged at 34.4 hours a week. all in all a great report. no conspiracy theories linked with this one. not this time around. 7.9% is actually a little higher than when president obama took office. so republicans can t that s what you hear. yep. thank you, becky. up next, taking a deep dive. into something we ve seen before. when a former presidential candidate has to run for re-election for their old house seat. michele bachmann. still to come we ll hear from the white house on the just released jobs numbers. they ll stop by here first. the daily rundown will be back in 30 seconds.