hotter. this is a remarkable figure, 528,000 jobs added in july, and basically no one saw this coming. here is some crazy context for you. this is 200,000 jobs stronger than even the most optimistic forecaster had been predibtctin and the strength was across the board. job gains in professional services, government jobs, healthcare, leisure and hospitality, all of them growing and we also saw two major milestones that really put an exclamation point on this remarkable jobs recovery. one, the unemployment rate dropping to 3.5%, tied with the half century low set before covid. and, two, payrolls have now fully recovered from the covid recession, returning to february 2020 levels. that means all the jobs lost during covid have new been recovered. i think when you put all this together, it really undercuts the idea that the u.s. economy is already in a recession. economies that are in recession do not add half a million jobs
loophole, this means investment managers still pay much lower tax rate by claiming their compensation is capital gains. the new york times reported she also won money for drought relief that several western senators wanted. to manu raju on capitol hill to break down these changes and also if you can update us on where the senate parliamentarian stands on all this. still need that stamp of approval. that s right, jim. the changes were significant. this left for several days of negotiations to get sinema on board, get all 50 democrats en board and move forward on this major piece of legislation. sinema raised concerns about the taxes in this bill that helped pay for the spending on climate change, and on healthcare initiatives and energy initiatives, but she had concerns about you mentioned the carried interest loophole, so-called loophole, that is the tax that democrats wanted to impose on hedge fund manager and private equity. she got that eliminated from its proposal. she also rai
it is a really good question, chris. when we get to that portion of the weekend, not only is it a fun thing for us to say when we are a little bit sleep deprived and slap happy but it is a sign we are close to the end of the process that the senate has to undertake to actually vote on this reconciliation package. but one of my key questions to senate majority leader chuck schumer a few minutes ago was, okay, you have senator sinema on board, is it smooth sailing from here. this is what he said. look, they re going to do lots of amendments. we don t know what else they will do, but i am as i said, i believe we will have 50 votes to pass this legislation at the end of the day. reporter: and, frankly, chris, that is all that they need. they need all 50 democrats to march in lock step on this and then the vice president, kamala harris, to come in and break the tie or in this case just go by simple majority and they will be able to do it. at this point it looks like they have all 50
president biden s economic agenda. democratic senator kyrsten sinema of arizona now saying she supports the bill and the rest of her caucus breathing a sigh of relief. cnn s chief congressional correspondent manu raju is live on the hill. manu, with sinema on board, it is looking good for democrats. republicans say they re going to go after that bill, though. what are you hearing? reporter: this morning they re laying out what their strategy is to try to derail this proposal. they have very little recourse if no democrats defect. but they are going to try to make it as difficult as possible for democrats, when this hits the senate floor tomorrow. after they vote to open debate, which i ll 50 democrats need to do, to do that, 50 republicans will vote against it, the vice president could break the tie, moving ahead there, then afterwards ten hours of debate on each side and then a gauntlet of amendments, series of amendments in which republicans can offer and democrats too anything the
cleared their last major hurdle in terms of numbers for votes on a bill aimed attack some of the sting out of inflation along with some sweeping energy and health care reforms. medic getting her on board was essential and it seems to have come together fairly quickly. give us a sense, how did that happen and also what is next? reporter: yeah, or if you look at it the other way, it took them 19 months got here. but they are finally here with sinema on board and they did it by offering her a number of recessions. and democrats also added a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks. take a listen to chuck schumer talking about how it all came together particularly when it comes to the carried interest provision that they dropped. i pushed for it to be in this