You are the most important part of the show, tell me what is on your mind, by tweeting me or hitting me up on facebook. Americas economic mojo got a major boost today after a stellar report on the jobs market. The Unemployment Rate fell to the lowest level since the recession. The dow jones crossed the 17,000 mark for the first time in history. Well have more on the dow and why it matters or not, if it really does later in the show. But on todays job numbers let me say for once, unemployment fell for the right reason. With Work Force Participation staying constant, a lower jobless rate this time around really signals job gains. The more important figure, though, is the actual number of new jobs that were added to the economy. And it totaled 288,000 in june. That was way above expectations. Figures for april and may were revised upward to 304,000, and 224,000 respectively. June was the fifth straight month of 200,000plus jobs gained per month. That is a feet that has not been seen since the tech boom of the 1990s. In all the economic has added 2. 5 million new jobs over the past year, at the same time the number of longterm unemployed, people out of work for more than six months has decreased by 1. 2 million. Now june was a particularly strong month for jobs growth, and its time to celebrate because americas recovery is gaining stride. But let me alert you to one thing that isnt going gang busters. Paychecks. Average Hourly Earnings for all workers ticked up just 0. 06 in june from may. And compared to a year ago, average Hourly Earnings rose just 2 . Thats barely keeping up with the rate of inflation. So more jobs are out there. More people are getting them. Thats good. But employers themselves are not feeling like they need to put up more money to lure workers to their firms. When they do, that is when more americans will feel like this recovery is getting real. Well need rapid consistent job growth for at least the next six to eight months before we see wages rise. Thats according to seth harris who served as the deputy labor secretary under president obama leaving the position earlier this year. Seth good to see you. Good to be with you, ali. First of all there are two elements of this. We want to see quantity, the net number of new jobs created above the 150 and 200,000 mark, but we need them to be of a certain quality, and increasingly were seeing a better quality of job. Ill put aside that 0. 06 raise for a second, and talk about the quality of jobs. When we talk about quality what do we mean . Were talking fab jobs that are fulltime, jobs are rising wages that get people on to career ladders that allow them to move into the middle class or stay in the middle class. We saw a lot of growth in professional and Business Services this month. Healthcare continued to do well, transportation did well, but were continuing to be disappointed by manufacturing and construction, two industries that produce lots of middle class jobs, but still are lagging and are not growing or growing fast enough. I want to talk about both of them. Lets start with manufacturing. We have seen a decrease in manufacturing jobs. We started seeing that in the late 70s. We have now started to see an uptick in manufacturing output in the United States without a commensurate uptick in manufacturing jobs. Isnt that the way things will go now . We are just more automated than we were in the past. Theres no question, technology has degraded the middle class, middle wage, middle skill jobs that were really the bull work of the American Economy for decades. But we saw a little bit of increase in manufacturing jobs in june, but still way down from our historical highs. There is something that congress and the president can do about that, they can invest in helping the interest to grow. They can undertake trade policies to help American Industries expand. But you are right, we can simply produce much, much more now than we were able to produce ten or 20 years ago. Lets talk about construction. Yesterday i told my viewers about the adp monthly report. Which showed a substantial up tick in construction jobs. This report didnt show that much of an increase, and im not quite clear what to make of that. How are these reports different and which ones should we be paying attention to. Well, adp look at their customers, and they customers tend to be middle sized and smaller businesses. I think the bls numbers are more accurate for that reason. And construction was a little bit of a disappointment, we saw no growth. We have all been waiting for the big bounce back from this very harsh winter, but we havent gotten the bounceback. And those are middle class jobs that support families and also help our economy to grow, and help our economy to operate more efficiently. There is another area where congress can make a difference, and we have got to be careful here. The Highway Trust Fund is going to run out of money. And were not going to be able to invest in local projects, and well sit on more construction workers sitting on the bench. And thats a big threat to these numbers. They talk about construction. Lets talk about Residential Construction for a second. At the time before the housing crash it was about 15 of the market, new homes. I think its under 10 now. But they are disproportionately influenza economy . Thats are. A part of it was we had a big housing bubble, and that was fuelled by wall street investing in mortgages that they shouldnt have been investing in. And it is going to take us a long time if we ever get back to the levels we saw 2006, early 2007. But thats why we have got to invest in other forms of construction in our society, building highways, roads, ports, inland waters. We can make a huge difference with congress will follow the president on this. Music to my ears. I am endlessly talking about infrastructure how it creates more jobs and help us remain competent to get jobs in the future. Seth harris, former deputy u. S. Labor secretary. While were on the subject of jobs. Lets take a look at of western europe. Germany, europes largest economy will pay most workers at least 8. 5 euros an hour, about 11. 60. The rate will go into effect later next year. Business leaders arguing it is going to kill jobs. Germany was one of seven eu countries that did not have a minimum wage. Wages were negotiated through unions and employers. Companies are practically tripping over themselves looking for workers who can develop websites and apps. But there are not enough people out there to fill the jobs. Also a potential ford strike has businesses all over the country worried. Retailers especially are urging dock workers and port owners to work out a new deal. Come back. Al Jazeera America presents the system with Joe Berlinger i think the prosecutor has the greatest power of anyone anybody in our Society Lawyers are entrusted to seek the truth. I didt shoot anybody, i dont have anything to do with nothin but some dont play by the rules the way the courts have treated him, made me sick and its society that pays the price prosecutors have unique power to take away your personal liberties i just want justi theres a labor dispute brewing on the west coast, that is making a lot of businesses nervous. Dock workers and port owners are negotiating over a new contract. Retrailers across the country are worried about a potential work stoppage. M melissa chan joins us from melissa . A strike is very unlikely. The unions and ports are talking, but of course retailers, manufacturers they are always worrying, right . They are thinking of plan b plan c plan d. They have to come up with a contingency plan. It may be july but the need arises to line shelves this holiday season. West ports have a tremendous impact to the u. S. Economy. The port of oakland is the fifth busiest in this the United States, and the third busiest on the west coast. Reporter but all of that activity could come a grinding halt. They have a great deal of power. They can shut down the entire west coast and really exert a great deal of economic pressure. This is why the United States government through the attorney general has intervened in past labor disputes of this kind. In 1971 and in 2002. Reporter long shoremen can make anywhere from 25 to 40 an hour, plus overtime and bonuses, though the bigger Sticking Point in current negotiations is healthcare. In 2002, employers locked out dock workers for ten days after failing to reach a deal. The subsequent backlog took months to clear. West coast ports handle more than twothirds of u. S. Retail container cargo. Including the bulk of merchandise from asia. 29 ports are at stake. A fiveday stoppage at all west coast ports would result in about a 2 billion loss to the u. S. Economy. Imports are not the soul issue. Californias fruits and vegetables, for example, ship overseas from west coast ports. Any delay would be rotting food and lost sales. And parp part of the problem, the frustration is there is a media blackout during these negotiations. There is a lot to lose for the ports and the union if everything comes to a stop. What is the betting on what is going on right now . Obviously the pressure that would come to bare would involve the president and politicians. You would be hearing from everyone. Its a little quieter now which makes me think people are betting against the strike or are loanful for a resolution. Yes, absolutely. And i think the Economic Conditions are different than back in 2002. The ports and unions traditionally dont get along, but they kind of have to get along now. The economic condition is poorer than it was in 2002. There is more competition. There is competition in canada and mexico. Shippers can decide they can go to the east coast, so the west coast ports need to be competitive, and to be competitive they have to be on the same team. Melissa, its a real treat to have you here on real money, thanks for your reporting. And well be in touch, im sure. Institutional investors help prop up the Housing Market by rushing in when times are tough, but now there are signs they are ready to start heading to the exit. Well talk about that when we come back. Khaled hosseini author of the best selling novel the kite runner talks about his hopes for his homeland. No change will come to afghanistan unless its initiated by the afghans themselves. And the inspiration for his latest novel. The idea for the book came from painful acts of sacrifice. Every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on al Jazeera America this saturday. I know that im being surveilled. Freedom at risk. Your agency deceived the american people. Tracking every move. The nsas actually doing this on a universal scale. Could you be next . If helping kids with their homework is terrorism activity, then. I guess so. Faultlines. Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting, theyre blocking the door. Groundbreaking, we have to get out of here. Truth seeking, award winning, investigative documentary series collect it all. Saturday, 7 eastern. Only on al Jazeera America. In the five years since the recession ended, housing prices in a b in of American Cities have soared, thats especially true in cities that suffered the most during the mortgage crisis. The driving force . Institutional investors buying up distressed properties. They purchased more than 386,000 singlefamily homes nationwide, but now a number of those buyers are looking to sell out. I spoke to Robert Shuler about this, and asked if he is worry about the impact . Institutional investors are a pretty savvy group and they respect momentum. And one thing they have learned is the Housing Market has a lot of momentum in it. When they see it at a very low point and starting to go up, for them its a nobrainer. We should go into this. Because its much more strong momentum than the stock market. Unlike the banks which didnt behave properly during the mortgage crisis, they didnt realize if they were more cooperative, their entire port portfolios wouldnt suffer. There are lots of people living. Yeah, and they dont time things precisely. If youre having a new baby or your kids are going to college or Something Like that, is determining the timing. So you are not being sophisticated at all. And thats why the market has such long trends to it. But now it seems to be changing with these institutional investors, and they will get out on a dime when they think the time is right. I know i see you interviewed and quoted on tv, and whether or not you are there, the headline tends to be home price increases are slowing. The increases are smaller with each passing month. And i know you often say thats not necessarily an unhealthy thing. Theres some stability in the market. So we have seen that slow down, first of all, is that are we is that a legalthy market . Where prices are still going up, month . Well, i dont know. You know, it is slowing a bit, but these things are hard to predict, and we have seen some strong data. Just yesterday the pending home sales data came out. It was up over 6 in one month. And defied all expectations. So im not at all sure it is slowing. Home prices are not particularly high. They could go up quite a bit. Im not predicting it. Im saying they certainly could. We have got the momentum even though it hasdy mennished a little bit. What is likely to great that momentum. The institutional investors, Interest Rates going up at some point . Interest rates is the most obvious factor, because everyone is wondering when the fed is going to actually raise rates, but i think actually these turning points have a big psychological component. And the major turning point we saw in the recent past was 2006, and i think that there was a change in public thinking. I can document with counts on google trends or other sources. Suddenly people got worried. There was all of this talk then of the subprime. It look a little after 2006 it started to come in. Subprime crisis. And people suddenly decided to exit the market, fairly suddenly, given that they are not investment professionals. It could be even more sudden now with so many professionals in the business. If you are a regular nonprofessional homeowner, this shouldnt matter to you all that much. If you are in your house for five or ten years or more, you shouldnt pay too much attention. Is there some larger economic influence if these investors decide to turn and bail . Well, yeah, for the long term, five or ten years, i can tell you can just as well ignore the trend right now, because there is momentum, but it tends to be washed out, even reversed if you go on a five or ten year. So right now if you are in that stage of your life, where you are thinking you would like to buy a home, i think, fine, do it. Home prices are not really high they are not like they were in 2006, and where theyll be in ten years, nobody knows. You spent a lot of your career around students, and one of the consequences of the Great Recession over the last several years has been the absence of new home formation. Kids going home to live with their parents. We have seen a study that suggests that young people that moved in with their parents may now be getting ready to move out. Do you believe that . And is that going to somehow spur the economy, because all of these people who werent buying homes and stereos and whatever, may start doing that . Could be. My son just bought a home. He asked me, should i do it . And i said go ahead. Not that im so enthusiastic or positive. But since he bought it just a couple of months ago, we have got a lot of strong data in, so he might have timed it all right. Your son might be a leading indicator. Robert schiller good to talk to you as always. Time now for an update on one of the three families were tracking as part of our continuing series, americas middle class rebuilding the dream. This week we checked back in knoxville, tennessee gift shop owner jody. She was recently hit with a disturbing and unforeseen cost when her car was broken into. I forgot to lock the car on friday night, and someone had tried to steal the car, and they stole the radio, and the cd player. So when they were trying to steal the car, they jacked up the ignition, and locked the steering. So we just had it towed, and i could tell that the neighborhood has just been getting worse and worse. It started in december when the mail was getting stolen out of the mailbox. Stealing my business checks. I work very, very hard, every penny i take from the store was spent on the car and the house. I had a 500 deductible, so the repair on the ignition was 536, so they sent me a check for 36. So i was out 500. And no stereo. The car is [ technical difficulties ] prior to the attempted theft. I dont feel real safe in it. At times i thought about selling the car, but thats not an option, because the car is 25 years old, and i have more money in the car than i could ever get for it. Its a 1989. I got it eight years ago, and paid 7,000 for it. So no car payment. I dont feel like i could sell the car, and replace it with anything better. Im just going to hang on to it. And my plan has always been to potentially just give it to julian, if i could at some point get myself a car that was better on gas mileage. I dont know when ill get a stereo again. It would be nice, but im just grateful to have to have the car. And hope that whatever is wrong with it, doesnt break any time soon. I cant imagine having a car payment on top of Everything Else. Theres just no way for me to do that right now. According to a new study from the university of texas at dallas on car robbery trends, parking near a major highway greatly increases your odds of being the victim of a break in. Next week we sat in on a financial marriage counseling session with the family from long island, new york. Up next, a lawsuit charges Goldman Sachs with being a boys club. And fight apps with apps. Well show you what the taxi industry has come up with to beat back competitors like uber. Now inroducing, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. Get our exclusive in depth, reporting wh