good evening. this is the day we take the pulse of jobs and employment in america and the pulse was weaker than predicted. employers added 115,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate did drop a notch to 8.1%. but as we said, those numbers were a disappointment. and so far, less than half of the jobs lost in the recession have come back. we wanted to know why. and tonight, abc s dan harris takes a look at the big picture on the american economy. reporter: behind the numbers today, real people like leslie and john, both looking for work. our partners at yahoo have been following their stories. how can i not find a job? i m obviously failing at finding a job. and that makes me angry, because i m not a failure. i sold all these houses. reporter: leslie lost her job as a real estate agent in 2008. she s been living off of her retirement savings. i think i could survive, you know, six months, maybe, without a job. then i sell everything i own. and yeah, it s scary. r
good evening. this is the day we take the pulse of jobs and employment in america and the pulse was weaker than predicted. employers added 115,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate did drop a notch to 8.1%. but as we said, those numbers were a disappointment. and so far, less than half of the jobs lost in the recession have come back. we wanted to know why. and tonight, abc s dan harris takes a look at the big picture on the american economy. reporter: behind the numbers today, real people like leslie and john, both looking for work. our partners at yahoo have been following their stories. how can i not find a job? failing ar finding a job and that makes me angry because i m not a failure. reporter: leslie lost her job as a real estate agent in 2008. she s been living off of her retirement savings. i think i could survive five, six months, maybe, without a job. then i sell everything i own. and yeah, it s scary. reporter: john, a married father of two, got la