sick leave measure. democrat, joe manchin of west virginia was the only one in his party to vote against it. ahead we ll talk to a rail worker who said president biden turned his back on his main union workforce and let them down. this morning gas prices are down, way down, lower than where they were before russia invaded ukraine ten months ago. pete muntean is live at a gas station in alexandria, virginia. i was surprised with this headline, what do you know? reporter: me too. we ve done shot after shot about prices going up. the national average now $3.45. according to triple a. think about february 24th when we saw russia invade ukraine, the average $3.54. so we are below that milestone that created uncertainty in the global market. we were worried about supplies
get so cold it s ice cold and it s not. it s not so for now the jobs market continues to chug along. i think the question is just when is inflation going to get back in line and what does the fed have to do to get it there? help us understand that s your role and you re doing just that, thank you so much, matt. i appreciate it. more good news amid the recession fears, this week the u.s. saw record-breaking holiday shopping, mortgage rates fell for a third straight week and prices at the pump, they re way down, a gallon of gas averaging 30 cents less than last month. cnn s pete muntean is tracking what s behind it. are they here to stay, i hope? reporter: it is the big question, ana. we think it might be short-lived because opec are holding a key meeting on sunday. the latest signals are they will not increase oil production. that means that the price of oil per barrel could go up even more, so the national average for a gallon of regular, don t get used to it, $3.45 according
some states have dipped below $3 a gallon. what s driving them down? well, the recession fears are the biggest driver right now, jim. remember, it s a global market, and oil is so sensitive to so many things. what s so interesting here is $3.45, the national average, think back to where we were on february 24th. $3.54. we re now below what we saw when russia invaded ukraine and it causes these gas prices to go up and up and up. we re hearing now from analysts is that things are really starting to stabilize. we have seen a 13 cent drop in just the last week. there is some uncertainty still. there are covid fears and lockdowns in china, concerns about recession will do. we re not totally out of the woods yet, although the prices are going down. that s good news for consumers. we re hearing from some analysts who say we may see prices go down further by the end of the
faster and longer. however, there is no question when you look at these jobs numbers, you saw them, 2 63,000 unemployment rate 3.7%, the white house is making clear this is more evidence of a successful economic recovery, one that is nowhere near a recession and one that you have also picked up a level of confidence for a white house that has been battling various economic issues over the course of the first two years in office that they feel like they are in a very good place now, particularly compared to the rest of the world. perhaps no better window than that than in gas prices. this had been one of the primary issues the president and his team have been grappling with in the lead up to the midterm elections. prices now, $3.45 on average is 9 cents less than the day russia invaded ukraine. it s down more than $1.50 from the peak in june. the president kind of giving a sense of some of the swagger. take leyson. for months you couldn t look anywhere without seeing headlines screami
virginia if kwouyou ve driven bd richmond and d.c., this is where it starts to back up. aaa says the worst of the traffic, the biggest driving day of the year would be between 11:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. we re kind of in the sunset phase of that on the east coast. still more to come on the west coast. we will see, though, if we reach the forecasted number that aaa put out, 47 million people driving 50 miles or more over the next five days, really not that far off from what we saw back in 2019 before the pandemic. what is so interesting here is that the price of gas does not seem to be impacting folks really all that much even though the price of gas is the highest it has been for thanksgiving rush ever. $3.61 is the national average for a gallon of regular. it was $3.45 a year ago. down from the highs in june but folks still out in force. look at this on i-95. we re in bumper to bumper traffic stop and go here. north and south.