[Berman:] Good morning, everyone. Great to see you. I'm John Berman.
[Romans:] And I'm Christine Romans. Our STARTING POINT this Friday morning, in just a minute, we get the big March jobs report, the first month of full sequestration effects. We're going to look at what's expected and what's happening in the job market.
[Berman:] It's like the Super Bowl for Christine Romans.
[Romans:] Yes.
[Berman:] Then a developing story, North Korea asking Russia to evacuate its embassy over growing tensions. We're going to live in the grand peninsula.
[Romans:] And the dominoes are falling, a group of Rutgers professors asking the president be fired after a controversial video of Basketball Coach Mike Rice goes public. This morning, we're talking to one of them.
[Berman:] The assistant coach already resigned there and more to follow maybe. Plus, my goodness, one handed, bare handed catch of that ball, but the most amazing thing of all, what he was doing with his other hand. Holding on to his beer, and does it without spilling a single drop, hats off to you this morning, sir. It is Friday, April 5th. STARTING POINT begins right now.
[Romans:] Our STARTING POINT this morning, 30 minutes away from a very good indicator of what's happening in the jobs market. A big jump in February, 236,000 jobs created. We're not expecting that kind of robust hiring in March, 190,000 jobs is what analysts are forecasting, 190,000 jobs not enough to bring down the unemployment rate. That unemployment rate stuck at 7.7 percent. Analysts and economists have been dialling back their expectations for the health of the jobs market this week because some other weak economic reports out there. Another issue, this report could show could show the early impact of the forced spending cuts. Those kicked in last month and some government agencies started furloughing workers, but the broader jobs trend shows improvement. I want to show you kind of a bigger picture, the last year or more, economy has been adding jobs for almost 2-12 years now. I'm going to bring you those numbers live at 8:30 Eastern. Sequester, we're going to be looking to see also what could happen with the cold weather. Could that have held back some construction hiring, housing market recovery, maybe that was something good in these numbers. Government job losses, we're expecting 9,000 or 10,000 government jobs to be shed even as the private sector keeps going.
[Berman:] So two things, there was sort of a big mood change that happened just this week. I think expectations were much higher before Tuesday that there would be gains of over 200,000 jobs. Now all of a sudden, the expectation is much, much lower.
[Romans:] And it feels like deja vu to me because even Ben Bernanke, the fed chief, recently said this. We have seen this early spring strength the last couple of years and then it would fade into the summer and that's something that's been kind of a pattern. This number is kind of a mysterious number this month. I'll be honest with you because we don't know how sequester, how weather, how an earlier Easter, worries from Europe are all going to play in here. Private sector employers have been more resilient than I would have expected.
[Berman:] There are two numbers to look at because of that. One, there could be private sector job crease that is greater than 190,000, but there could be public sector government job losses.
[Romans:] That's true. One thing about the jobs number that is really interesting to me it is such an important economic indicator with the largest labor market in the world and the largest economy in the world. But when you look at the jobs number, for most people even when it's getting better, they say they don't feel it because your job market is a job market of one. Either have you a job and you're confident in it or you don't. That is what really an underlying problem for the economy. We need to get more people back to work.
[Berman:] We will bring you those new numbers, the minute, second that they come in at 8:30. So stay with us for that. Meanwhile, breaking news this morning, missiles are on the move and tensions rising on the Korean Peninsula. Reuters says Pyongyang is asking Russia to consider evacuating its embassy staff in the north. Russian officials say they have no immediate plans to comply. Meanwhile, a U.S. official tell CNN two missiles and launch components have been moved to North Korea's east coast in the last few days with a range of 2,500 miles. These missiles could possibly strike South Korea, Japan, and U.S. bases in Guam. CNN's Jim Clancy is live for us this morning in Seoul, South Korea. Good morning, Jim. What's the latest?
[Jim Clancy, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, we're ratcheting up the pressure once again. North Korea, apparently according to the Russians, telling them they might want to evacuate some of their embassy staff, if not all of them. We are understanding now that this is a message that may have been given to other embassies as well. The Russians are going public with that.