[clock ticking]
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CARL AZUZ: Good news and bad news concerning the US
economy headlines today's show.
I'm Carl Azuz.
It's great to have you watching.
According to the latest jobs report from the US government,
which gives a snapshot of how things looked in March,
more than 430,000 new positions were
added nationwide last month.
Economists had predicted growth of 490,000 jobs.
It fell short of that.
But the numbers are still considered
a sign of strong growth.
Another measurement economists pay close attention
to is the unemployment rate.
This is an estimate of the percentage of American workers
who don't have a job.
And that number for March was 3.6%.
The lowest it's been since the 1960s is 3.5%.
And that happened in February of 2020,
just before the effects of the COVID pandemic hit America.
So what's the bad news here?
Inflation is a major problem.
Housing prices, new construction,
existing homes, and rent have all gone through the roof.
By the end of last year, the prices of the things we buy
had risen by their biggest margin in 40 years.
Gasoline prices rose steadily throughout 2021.
And they jumped even higher after Russia invaded
Ukraine in late February.
If you add up the costs of groceries, gas,
and many other things that American families usually buy,
Bloomberg Economics expects the typical household will pay
$5,200 more this year than it did last year
for the exact same things.
That's why even though wages have been increasing
in many jobs, Americans aren't feeling those raises
because the increase in prices is
greater than the additional money in their pockets.
What they are feeling is reflected
in consumer sentiment, how people perceive their own money
and the economy as a whole.
And that measure for March was at its lowest
level in more than a decade.
So what are the upsides to the US government's
latest employment numbers?
CHRISTINE ROMANS: Well, they're saying there was strong hiring
across the board and an unemployment rate that
fell to the lowest of the pandemic, 431,000 jobs
added back into the economy.
3.6% is the jobless rate.
Also, some very good news for January and February.
Those numbers were revised higher.
Look at February, 750,000 jobs added back in that month.
That is much stronger than we expected.
That has been the trend, hasn't it?
As they've been trying to grapple with all of this flux
in the American job market, when they go back
and really look at those numbers,
they tend to revise them higher.
So a strong performance here in the beginning of the year.
In fact, if you look at the average,
it's about 562,000 jobs added back on average in
the first quarter of this year.
In normal times, you would be screaming from the rooftops.
We know that those are jobs being
added back after a huge washout at the beginning
of the pandemic.
The US economy is still down about 1.6 million jobs
since it all began.
The story is really in the jobless rate here.
This is 14.7% at the worst.
This was a really, really ugly moment.
Last year, you were still at 6%, now 3.6% unemployment.
That shows you that people are being hired.
People are being employed.
And the unemployment rate is tumbling quite quickly here.
In fact, when you look at these numbers,
you can see that 418,000 people came off the sidelines
and went back into the labor market.
That's what you want to see.
They're hearing about rising wages.
They're hearing about all this job hopping that's providing
people with this great opportunity
in the American jobs market, and they're coming
back into the labor market.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia--
which of these events occurred in 1790, first US census taken,
Washington was elected president,
the US Constitution was ratified,
or slavery was abolished?
1790 was the year of the first US census.
It found that just under 4 million
people lived in America.
1950 was the last time a census of most US households
was taken by people going door to door.
After that, the Census Bureau started mailing Americans
the forms to fill out.
The findings from the 1950 census
have just been made available to the public.
A database of almost seven million records is now online.
A spokesman for the National Archives
says the project's been in the works for a decade.
The original paper documents these records
came from no longer exist.
They were destroyed in the 1960s.
So what you can see was scanned from microfilms
that the bureau took in 1952.
It's not a complete list of everyone who lived in America.
After the census was taken, the Bureau
estimated that the count missed more than 4% of the population.
But for most people whose ancestors lived here in 1950,
it's an interesting genealogical snapshot
of their family's history.
Next story recalls one of the great lines of literature,
"the old man was dreaming about the lions."
Across the Atlantic and across the African continent,
old men aren't the only ones who are dreaming of big cats.
Conservationists are working to balance tribal safety,
livelihood, and traditions with the preservation
of a powerful creature.
Lions are considered to be a vulnerable species,
whose numbers are reportedly decreasing in the wild.
- Sunrise on the edge of Ruaha National Park.
[cattle lowing]
Here in Central Tanzania, livestock is life.
[non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: Our tribe believes livestock
is part of the family, and we cannot live without them.
- Another day, another deadly threat
for livestock and people.
Stephano Asecheka is part of the Barabaig, a little-known tribe
with a long history with lions.
[non-english singing]
STEPHANO ASECHEKA: [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: In our tribe, our customs
and tradition raise us to have pride in killing
a lion as a young man.
And we are made to believe that once you kill one,
it at least reduces the threat.
- Traditionally, young warriors like this
would gain rewards and status from killing lions.
Part of the lion?
Defenders program, Asecheka is showing
them ways to protect the tribe while preserving the pride.
- [non-english speech]
INTERPRETER: The lion defenders work in the village areas.
And their task is survey the borders
early in the morning for lion tracks
and to inform elders of the safety grazing areas.
- The Lion Defenders are part of the Ruaha Carnivore Project,
founded by Amy Dickman in 2009.
When she first came here four years previously,
things were bad.
She said she had to work hard to gain the tribe's trust.
AMY DICKMAN: We said we are just here to find out
why you're killing these lions and if there's a way you could
achieve whatever you achieve through it through conservation
rather than killing.
- And eventually persistence paid off.
AMY DICKMAN: They really opened up to us.
And since then, it's really been a transformative relationship
in working with them for conservation.
But we certainly know the lion killings
have decreased by over 70% in the core area
that we're working in.
- The project offers financial incentives to protect lions
by funding community services like education,
doctors, and vets.
AMY DICKMAN: We'd love to collaborate with you guys.
It really can be a way of uplifting people and making
sure that wildlife is a way to get
people out of poverty as well.
- Asecheka also gives tours of the park
to help his tribe see wildlife from a new perspective.
CARL AZUZ: The streets of Long Island, New York
are probably not the best place for a baby seal to wander.
But, well, residents called police
when they saw this little guy making
his way through a parking lot.
Officers believe he swam up the iconic river,
climbed out, and somehow got lost,
winding up in a traffic circle.
This is a federally protected species.
He's cute.
But you can't take him home as a pet.
Police were able to pick him up, though, and take
him to a rehabilitation center.
The seal's in good shape and will
soon be returned to the beach.
We mustn't all rush to judgment.
We don't know how long he was there for
or if he was blubbering about being lost.
The ocean is filled with killer whales.
And so if he's trying to go-go on land to get away,
our lips are sealed.
We just hope he waits until the walk signal
flipper's on so he could safely use
the pin-a-pedestrian crossing.
All right.
Today's show takes us to the park, Park High School.
It's located in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.
And I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
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