completely unexpected, because if you see how the jobs numbers have been over the past year, they ve been averaging 234,000 jobs added monthly, so there s only so long the jobs market can add that many jobs when we know that the unemployment rate, as we learned today, is sitting at 3.8%. that s a drop from 4%. we did see the unemployment rate tick higher in january in part because of the government shutdown. so what happened with the sectors in february? we did see job additions in business services and health care. but then we see the dropoff in construction. a lot of 31,000 jobs. that gives an indication of why we saw some of those job numbers go down. in february we are seeing a home sale under pressure. the job gains of 20,000 jobs added to the economy in february, is this a trend or is this just a blip? because we did see the job numbers go down in similar fashion in september of 2017.
the lowest monthly number since september of 2017. unemployment did fall to 3.8%, and you can see the effect on the dow. they re down more than 100 points right now, almost 150. but while the low jobs number is seen as a surprise, it could actually be a positive. it may suggest the economy is simply running out of available workers. and also employers could be switching part-time workers to work full-time. the conways. they re one of the most diverse power couples in washington. kellyanne is a republican counselor to the president, but her husband george is just the opposite. he s a fierce critic of mr. trump and he is not afraid to share his views. today was no exception. cnn s laura jarrett is joining us now. tell us what conway said. george conway pulling no punches again in washington on the rule of law, a concept which he says shouldn t be controversial. we should be able to take it for
that s absolutely the case. i m happy to share with her shot with the results are here, compare what we got from president obama with regard to the north koreans. zero, nothing at all. this president, you got the return of u.s. remains, something the u.s. has wanted for quite a long time, securing the release of three hostages in north korea, about a denuclearize and the fact that north korea has not shut off a nuclear test missile since september of 2017, more than a year ago. there are tangible results. i know the media likes to hide them, but there are tangible results that this president has gotten in president obama never got close to. shannon: we have much more to discuss with the panel because things are changing minute-by-minute here in vietnam. if you will all stick around we want to continue the conversation. in the meantime, we are getting some guidance we told her without we would get from the white house and sarah sanders about where we re going, where the timeline is.
she played a role in helping renegotiate nafta, the new deal, the usmca, the u.s., mexico, canada agreement. she was involved in those talks and was seen as a tough negotiator. she went through senate confirmation, was formally sworn in as u.s. ambassador to canada in september of 2017. fox news is told she has a decent working relationship with senate democrats and the foreign relations committee and since she was already and recently confirmed through the senate confirmation process, the thought here is that she ll have a smoother confirmation process and less vetting issues. the president announced the nomination on twitter. just before that tweet we re told that ambassador craft met with president trump as well as secretary of state mike pompeo and john bolton. arthel. arthel: allison, thank you. eric: eric: now to politics. surprising news we re told for senator bernie sanders as his presidential campaign launched
since december of 2000, by the way, that is near full employment and just as important, people are feeling good about the economy as well. 69% of americans think this time next year they re going to be better off financially. that is the highest rate of optimism that we ve seen since 2002. and that s the number the president himself tweeted out this week. low unemployment. people feeling good. those things matter to voters on election day, but what about the gray clouds i mentioned? this week the fed announced that 7 million americans are at least 90 days late on their car payments. how important is that number? that s a record amount of people. skipping car payments is not something consumers typically do casually. this could also mean trouble ahead for the automobile industry if consumers are less able to afford new cars. so the amount of revolving debt, usually credit card debt held by americans is also at a new record over $1 trillion. it s been over 1 trillion since september of 2