a very strong jobs report, 467,000 jobs and what s striking about it, that occurred during a month with we know that lots of people were out sick temporarily because the omicron variant, and so what it really shows, it shows the resilience of the american economy and american capitalism really driving strong job growth with strong wage growth across the board in the economy, and it caps off a year that was truly historic. we have never seen 6.6 million jobs created in our economy in a single year. never seen the unemployment rate fall as fast as we have seen it fall over the course of the last year. it s good news, people are getting back to work and getting to work in higher wage jobs. sandra: as you know, it s how people feel and people don t feel great, they are paying more to fill their gas tank, spending more on the grocery bill or the home heating bill. prices of just about everything are going up. i hear you mention strong wage growth. and wages are up 5.7% year over
consumer sentiment is plummeting as as a result of what is happening. we have a lot of work to do in washington and i m excited for the second half of the year. sandra: the president seems to have punted to the fed. there s some things the administration can do like maybe not implement more spending considering spending historically is what drives inflation. there s no question voters are not happy about what is happening. it s not just republicans speaking about this. it s democrats, moms and dads everywhere that are not just dealing with the grocery prices. your bill might be 20% higher but your gas bill is 50% higher and the home heating bill is up double digits. this is becoming a big inflation a big political issue. you heard hillary vaughn reporting. it affects red states different than blue states. a lot of analysis being done why that is. but the swing states, they re experiencing higher spikes in inflation than others and that
about are going into their gas tank. sandra: that is fact, the gas tank, the grocery bill, the home heating bill. wage growth, 5.7%. that would be great if inflation wasn t up 7%. so everything more that folks are making is going towards these bills. what is the solution? what can we do tomorrow to improve the situation, phil? i would send a message to the world that the u.s. energy producer is coming back. we re not in retreat anymore. the biden administration has failed to do that. they have said the u.s. energy, oil and gas is in retreat. that sends a message, words matter. that is when dollars matter. you know, they can t make up their mind whether they re for natural gas or against natural gas. we hear from the biden administration that they want to cancel pipelines, you know, they want to encourage other countries to expert more natural gas to europe in case there s a war. then we have senator warren
companies are reluctant to pump more because they want stability after prices collapsed two years ago. the pressure is on not only on u.s. oil producers but worldwide. saudi arabia has said they will not pump more oil than what opec has already agreed to. so next time you re pumping more and paying more at the gas pump, you can thank what s happening in ukraine and in russia for the price increase that you re paying here. so, tom, how bad could it get? that s the bottom line people want to know. reporter: the expectation is if we go over i think it s $4.15, $4.20 a gallon nationally, that would be an automatic-time record. we could move over that, could move the $6 a guilty lon out in california. but you know what, chris, if this continues to spiral out of control, nobody wants that, but if it does, all bets are off in terms of how high gas prices could go, how much higher your home heating bill could go as well. it s already up 56% from a year ago. tom costello, i m layering
housing boom as will the interest rates, the mortgage rate. and i m just looking at some stuff. again, this is a rate of increase. your idea about the $500,000 level is correct. i m just saying, you were at 24% increase for new home prices last august. you are down to 11%, latest data. existing home prices, 24% last may, down to 15, so still large numbers. sandra: i m making the case, tough to fill up the gas tank, pay your home heating bill and the very hard working average american this administration says they are out to help is getting hurt the most if you are trying to get into a new home, a first time home buyer, it s virtually impossible. larry, i will ask you and real wages. real wages are falling. the inflation tax is truly a tax. right now at the current inflation rate, 8% for the last reading year on year, probably