>> since 9/11 they really became the tip of the spear in the war against al qaeda and the taliban. >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them. >> during its first year, the humpback calf and its mother are almost inseparable. she lifts her calf to its first breath of air, then protects it on the long journey to their feeding grounds. one of the most important things you can do is help the next generation. at pacific life, we offer financial solutions to accomplish just that. your financial professional can tell you about pacific life-- the power to help you succeed. >> and by bnsf railway. intel. sponsors of tomorrow. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: after a week of osama bin laden, the economy moved back to the top of the news today. the april jobs report showed healthy gains, but also a rise in the unemployment rate. president obama talked up the report during a day trip to the midwest. >> today, we found out that we added another 268,000 private sector jobs in april. >> woodruff: the president plugged that good news from the jobs report at an auto transmission plant in indianapolis. the gain in private sector jobs was based on a survey of businesses by the u.s. labor department, and it was stronger than expected. it also offset the loss of 24,000 government jobs, mostly at the local level. that made a net gain of 244,000 jobs nationwide in april. in fact, the economy has now added more than 200,000 positions for three months in a row, the best period in five years, all of which had the president saying, "we are regaining our footing." >> the fact is that we are still making progress, and that proves how resilient the american economy is and how resilient the american worker is, and that we can take a hit and keep on going forward. >> woodruff: but a separate labor department survey of american households found the unemployment rate ticked up to 9% in april from 8.8% in march. it was the first time the rate had risen since last november, and the number of "under- employed" americans rose to 15.9%. with that in mind, the head of the federal bureau of labor statistics, keith hall, counseled caution today at a congressional hearing. >> we haven't yet seen some things that's we'd like to see in a strengthening recovery. >> woodruff: republican house speaker john boehner went further. he issued a statement, saying, "while any improvement is welcome news, job growth in america is still nowhere close to what it should be." still, there were signs this week of economic momentum-- rising retail sales and factory output. and that could give hope to the 13.7 million americans still unemployed. the jobs report initially sent wall street sharply higher. but as the day went on, the stock market gave back most of the gains. the dow jones industrial average gained 54 points to close above 12,638. the nasdaq rose more than 12 points to close at 2,827. for the week, the dow lost 1.3%; the nasdaq fell 1.6%. we take a closer look at the jobs numbers now with david leonhardt, economics writer and columnist for "the new york times." his work won a pulitzer prize last month. >> lehrer: congratulations for that, david. >> thank you. >> woodruff: good to have you back with us. should we be more encouraged or worried as a result of this reported. >> i would say encouraged. a lot depends on your expectations coming in. i was concerned this could be a disappointing report because we've had a series of disappointing reports over the last six weeks or so. oil prices are rising. we still have debt problems in europe. so i think there was some reason to worry that the slowdown in economic growth in this country which sun deniably happened over the last three months would translate to less hiring. and instead we don't have a huge burst of hiring, hiring has continued to pick up speed. so i think this more good news certainly than bad news. >> woodruff: but you still have the naysayers out there focusing on the fact that the unemployment rate went up based on this other survey of households. help us understand that discrepancy. >> yeah, it's really confusion. i mean reporters all over the country today i think were trying to write stories that explain both of these things. it is hard because there actually is to good explanation for both of these things. the labor department conducts two different surveys. one produces the job growth estimate, the 244,000 new jobs last month. and one produces the unemployment rate. and there's no way they can both be right for last month. over longer term they could both be right but there's no way they can both be right last month. so what's happening is the labor department goes out and asks people are you working. that produces the unemployment rate numbers. they also ask businesses how many people dow employ. that second survey, the survey of businesses is much larger. and so when in doubt we should believe it over the household survey and most economists do believe, in fact that last month it was right. and that the rise in the unemployment rate is really just a catch-up. the unemployment rate fell artificialically-- artificially quickly and so you can think of this as sort of a correction. >> so you are saying don't spend a lot of time trying to reconcile these too. >> no, they are not reconcileable. that exactly right. some months you can say oh, well, the unemployment rate went up because more people flowed into the labor force. when you dig into the numbers that is not actually what happened last month. there is no story that makes both of these thins true for last month. >> take us david leonhardt inside these numbers. what do we see here, where are jobs grows, what sector, what groups of people? >> that is another reason for optimism. the labor department has a set of industry categories. and every one of them added jobs last month with one exception. the exception was the government. manufacturing added jobs, retail added jobs, health care added jobs. this category called information added jobs. the government cut jobs and that's mostly because of cuts at the state and local level. they're grappling with budget deficits. most of them have rules that say they must balance their budgets and the way they do that is by cutting workers. >> again just to get back to these, i call them naysayers, people who are still looking at the glass as half full, you know, they will still say well, the growth in the last quarter was week. they'll point out that you know, you had surprisingly high jobless claims. >> right. >> coming out just yesterday. they'll talk about manufacturing slowing down. why aren't those things a counterweight to some of what you are seeing. >> they are to some extent. i will happily do two-bits of naysaying myself. the first would be that we do see some worrisome signs. you mentioned the jobless claims numbers. that is a much narrower survey than this report but it's also more recent. this monthly report basically refers to mid-april. some of these weekly jobless numbers go into late april and they do look worrisome. now maybe they'll just end up being a blip because it is narrower. but maybe not. maybe next's month report will be bad because of the reason we talked about. the high oil prices, the debt problems in europe, the state and local budget cuts. i think the first reason to are be worried we still could have a real slowdown this spring the same way we did last spring. the second reason to be worried is no matter what we have such a long, long way to go in order to get back to anything of a healthy economy. at the rate of 240, 250,000 jobs a month, we are not going to be there in years. >> which makes folks who look the a these numbers say yes, we can cheer for a day or two but the long run still looks grim for so many people. >> that's right. and so to the extent that we really want to have hope that things could can be improving, it's not how much job growth we had last month, it's that the amount of job growth continues to increase. and so if we-- if we six months from now are still here talking about 240,000 new jobs, that won't be good. part of the reason we are encouraged is we had more job growth last month than the month before and more the month before than the month before that. and we really need to keep going with this pace of improvement in order to start putting back to work many of these people who are left unemployed by the great recession. and who very much want to be working again. >> woodruff: and i noticed you posted today on your web site, on the place where you write on-line, you showed a graph what what unemployment, employment has looked like over the last couple of years. and you really do see when you look at that that yes, it was really, really bad. but it's getting better. the trend line is better. >> yes, my colleague does that chart and has been doing it every month it is an amazing chart. you see just how much deeper this downturn was and other downturns. you also see that things started to get better early and they sort of went in a jagged line where they didn't bet better. so part of the fear about now is that we could be, we are at least at risk of repeating that. because we're recovery from financial crises tends to be slow and uneven. so the reason i left today's numbers encourage kd is that it looks like things are still getting better. >> woodruff: david leonhardt, "new york times", thank you again for being with us. >> thank you, judy. >> lehrer: still to come on the newshour: the growing disparity between rich and poor; the u.s. military's special ops forces; and shields and brooks. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: al qaeda issued its own confirmation of osama bin laden's death in a statement posted on militant web sites today. the terror network warned of new attacks to avenge bin laden. it said americans' "blood will be mingled with their tears". the web site statement promised a final audio message from bin laden will be issued soon. it said he made the recording a week before his death. bin laden apparently hoped to stage attacks on american cities at major holidays. the associated press reported today he had a kind of "wish list", but no specific plans. it cited officials who have seen intelligence material seized at his compound in pakistan. and a pakistani intelligence official said one of bin laden's wives has told interrogars shehe lived at the compound for five years. she said she never left the top two floors of the house. anti-american protests broke out in parts of pakistan today over the killing of bin laden. hundreds of members of radical islamic parties demonstrated in several cities and burned american flags. the protesters held posters of bin laden and warned of what's to come. >> america is celebrating the kill of osama bin laden but it will be a temporary celebration. after the martyrdom of osama billions, trillions of osamas will be born. >> sreenivasan: also today, pakistani intelligence officials said a u.s. drone aircraft t e at edleaski15 ople. they said a barrage of missiles hit a vehicle in north waziristan, near the border with afghanistan. it was the first reported drone attack since the u.s. raid that killed osama bin laden. nato has announced the death of another soldier in afghanistan. it happened in a roadside bombing in the south, but there were no other details. 114 coalition troops have been killed since the beginning of the year. this friday brought a new wave of bloodshed in the uprising across syria. security forces opened fire on huge crowds of protesters, killing at least 30. the demonstrators were demanding the end of president bashar al-assad's regime. we have a report narrated by jonathan miller of independent television news. >> reporter: in this, the latest day of defiance, activists claim thousands demonstrated in 63 towns and cities across syria. some even waved turkish flags, thanking their neighbor for its tough stance against assad. it's by far the biggest, most widespread day of protest so far. deraa, the hearthstone of the revolt, from which some tanks and troops withdrew yesterday, remains ringed with steel. unable to enter deraa, thousands of protestors converged on tafas, eight miles northwest. government tanks surround banias, as well as al-restan and homs, where soldiers fired randomly into crowds. after friday prayers, spontaneous protests erupted in damascus' old city, and the suburbs of barzeh, al-midan, and saqba. there was a huge demonstration in the city of hama, which was also met with gunfire. other protests reported in aleppo, syria's second city; in qamishli in the kurdish northeast; as well as in dayr as zawr and abu kamal. in damascus, as they poured out of friday prayers, they chanted "he who kills his own people is a traitor," and they welcomed martyrdom in the face of bashar al-assad's bloody repression. international media are banned from syria. every day, activists post amateur video on the internet. it can't be authenticated. these tanks apparently filmed today just outside homs. there were snipers on rooftops. homs-- the site of the bloodiest clashes; 15 protestors reportedly killed. activists claim some soldiers opened fire on state security men to protect demonstrators, reportedly killing several. the watching world's condemned the bloodshed, but is apparently powerless to stop it. in syria itself, the thirst for freedom is now greater than the fear this police state's instilled. >> sreenivasan: human rights groups estimate that more than 580 syrian civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the uprising began seven weeks ago. in yemen, hundreds of thousands of people turned out again to demand that president ali abdullah saleh step down. he has refused to resign, despite three months of protests. demonstrators on both sides filled the streets of the capital city, sanaa, but the opposition crowd far exceeded the president's supporters. police in memphis, tennessee, went door-to-door today urging people to leave their homes in the face of rising floodwaters. about a thousand homes were involved. officials warned the rising mississippi river and its tributaries could leave them under water in the next few days. the coast guard also closed a five-mile stretch of the mississippi to barge traffic. flooding in the mississippi delta has already broken high- water records in place since the 1930s. the theater marquees on broadway will dim tonight in honor of playwright/director arthur laurents. he died thursday at his home in new york city. in 1957, laurent wrote the book for "west side story". the classic musical gave "romeo and juliet" a new spin about rival new york street gangs. two years later, he wrote "gypsy", based on the life of stripper gypsy rose lee. laurents also directed on broadway, and wrote the screenplay for "the way we were" in 1973. arthur laurents was 93 years old. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: the jobs numbers for april were released on the same day as a new report that finds executive pay is soaring once again. jeffrey brown picks up that part of the story. >> brown: the associated press, which released the study on c.e.o. compensation, put it this way: "in the boardroom, it's as if the great recession never happened." c.e.o. pay, including salaries, bonuses, and stock options, was up 24% last year to a level higher than 2007, just before the recession hit. the ten highest paid executives made a combined $440 million. six of them came from the world of media and entertainment, including the heads of viacom and cbs. the study came a day after the fortune 500 list was released, showing corporate profits increased by 81% last year, or more than $300 billion. we look more at pay, profits, and jobs now with deborah wince- smith, president and c.e.o. of the council on competitiveness, a non-partisan group that works with business, universities, and labor to enhance american competitiveness; and vineeta anand studies corporate governance and other issues as chief research analyst in the afl-cio office of investment. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> suarez: i will start with you, start with the c.e.o. pay issue, what explains the fast rise and quick return to prerecession levels? >> well, i think one of the main issues is that we're seeing tremendous success of u.s. corporations in terms of their profits, their revenue and their share value. so that is a good sign that shows that we are continuing to rebound from the recession and that we are really going to see increased productivity and standard of living that ultimately comes from this wealth generation. >> brown: vineeta, a good sign in seeing the hikes in the c.e.o. pay. >> well, actually as share holders and we are shareholders representing workers through the pension plans, we are very worried because c.e.o.s and the rich have gotten richer in the united states. whereas everybody else has been left behind. the disparity has grown so that in 1980 c.e.o.s made about 42 times the pay of an average worker. and in 2010, it was 324 times. so that's a huge jump. and it is as if the recession never happened. you quoted the ap numbers. and our own database, we launched earlier last month, executive pay watch, showed that 299 of the s&p 500 c.e.o.s made a collective 3.4 billion dollars. and that could support 103,000 workers making average wages. >> brown: deborah wince-smith that reflects what people wonder. we heard a segment that talks about slower growth and people feeling pain for a long period of time. so what's the other side of the positive sign that you are seeing in c.e.o. pay growth? >> well, putting aside c.e.o. pay growth, i think what we really need to look at is the fact that what is going on in the global economy is a fundamental restructuring. we've really left a 20th century nonhigh skill kd economy. the jobs of the future are requiring entirely different skill sets so the disparity we're seeing in income is often directly linked to educational levels and skills levels. you know, we can't in the united states compete on low wages or standardized products and services. we have to compete on this higher value work. now the fact is the american worker is ten times more productive than a worker in china. in the long run, that is fantastic. but of course it means that automation, the use of all these new technological capabilities that drive this productivity does displace workers who don't have those skills and where we don't need those types of performance any more in the workplace. so really what we need to be focused on is how do we transition to this new economy, how do we have the education, the skills and the training so we can really capitalize on our entrepreneurship, our innovation, our great research and development. because we can't really be looking back. we have to look forward. >> brown: vineeta anand, a new economy. >> we have been talking by a a new economy since the 1980s, we have talked a