gaugin. it was understood of nood it was bought by a couple of state victims, entitled when will you marry? it was sold by a fish family british family. big winning streak but a lot of people out there are still feeling like they're losing. i'm talking to the top man in america's labor market. and this is a good time to be your own man but it is not easy. >> you don't know if the dream is going to succeed or fail. i can't guarantee a paycheck for the next 12 months, two years. >> plus how one well-known procure

entrepreneur traded oil barrels for money bags. i'm ali velshi and this is "real money." >> america's job market continues to boom even if most americans aren't feeling it. the economy created 257,000 new jobs in january. and big positive revisions to november and december, added to the number of jobs created at the end of 2014. just take a look at november. revised upwards to 423,000 net new jobs. that's the strongest hiring since 1997. and yes. the unemployment rate ticked up by 110 -10th of one percentage point. but it ticked up for the right reason, people entering the look for work. i say to you, look instead to

the number of jobs created every month and that was positive news. one other, average hourly earnings up by an annual rate of 2.2%. now stagnant wages have made this job recovery feel hollow to many people. now one month's uptick is not a trend. but if wages keep moving higher in the months ahead this job recovery might start feeling real to americans. in the meantime, there are still plenty of people trying to make ends meet five years after the recession ended and a growing number of them aren't waiting for someone to hire them. diane eastabrook has this from chicago. >> cora wisenberg heads to a second interview at a nonprofit. >> i'm feeling confident i'm feeling good about it. so i'm hoping for the best. >> reporter: still wisenberger says competition is

cutthroat so she has a plan b if she doesn't get the job. >> the more you go into things with a positive attitude the more successful you will be. >> support from individuals in her support group wiseenberger is thinking about starting her own support group. >> there is a little preservation in that i have my -- i have the ability to generate my own income. >> wisenberger could join a growing number of americans, about 18 million, who have become solopreneurs, increasing 12.5% over the last few years. >> ists not a job as we -- it's not a job as we think about it but it's getting a job done and it's important that we recognize this is happening. >> while the tough job market has prompted some workers to strike out on their own zeno

says many are doing it by their own choice. access to health insurance under the affordable care act is helping people to do it as well as technology. many are doing it with a laptop and cell phone for just a few thousand dollars. a lot work from home. 39-year-old kelly dietrich runs his internet business from a desk a few feet from his dining room table. his company makes training videos for inexperienced political candidates. dietrich says going solo gives him more time with his family and more freedom of choice in his work but he admits there are drawbacks. >> you don't know if this dream is going to succeed or fail. i can't guarantee a paycheck for next 12 months, two years. >> regularly posting might mean three times a week. >> as cora wisenberger waits for the nonprofit job she's

taking a class in marketing. she might launch the consulting business on the side. >> this is second time i've been unemployment in two years. this is the opportunity to take things into my own hands. >> and she says possibly build a more secure future diane eastabrook, chicago, al jazeera. >> secretary of labor, these numbers are good, not as good as november's numbers are but look if we are in the 225 to 250 range most people would say that's good job creation. we saw that 2.2% tick up in wages, not a trend but let's go back to wages. it is what you and i talk about every month. in order to get people to a place where they're feeling good about their wages we've been setback for so long that jump would have to be fairly substantial. how does that play out?

is it reasonable to expect that people will see increases this year and translating into individuals feeling better about this economy? >> there are a number of things we can do to pick up the pace of wage growth. tight labor markets is a very good way to pick up the pace of wage growth. it's all about leverage. in the depths of the great recession there were about seven job seekers for every job opening. that's not leverage for workers. we're down to about 1.8, 1.7 job seekers so moving in the right direction. that translates into better leverage. there's still some slack there. there are a number of things we can do, a number of states have increased the minimum wage, that helps some segment of the economy. helping people who work overtime who have been underpaid as a result of an outdated regulation, we're helping millions of home health workers as well so there are those interventions as well, and

there's always what i call the education dividend. the reason the president is talking about free community and the way we have redoubled our investment in apprenticeship that enables people to have the skills of today and tomorrow. the education dividend is undeniable. the more education you have the better the chances are. >> we just saw the education rate for, people who don't see that and that's good that we're moving forward on that but let's just talk about the math and again conservative economists often talk to me about the fact that you can't do what the president and you are doing touting these great numbers of wage -- of job growth, and get the same wage growth you want. you trade one off for the other. tell me your view on that. >> i don't agree with that. first of all, let's level set here. the three months before the president takes office, we lose 2 million jobs. we're now

at 59 consecutive months of improvement of jobs. the leading sector in the last year was business and professional services. those are well paying jobs. accountants, architects, consultants making good wages. one of the highest areas was education and health. another, very good sector. construction is ticking up, over 300,000. and by the way business and professional services that was over 700,000. ughyou know, and manufacturing -- >> where is the disconnect? you're outlining things that make sense, creating higher paid jobs, when do we get back to a point that a guy like you i know feels very passionately and personal about it, we are paying wages that make sense and they are feeling what the numbers tell us that this is a strong and growing economy, the truth is the numbers indicate a strong

and growing economy, but if you are not at the lower end of this, you are not feeling it. >> we have discussed this multiple times, making sure that the tail wind we're seeing and the prosperity we're beginning to see, results in shared prosperity. you look at the president's budget and what the president said in the state of the union we've had six consecutive months over 200,000, we haven't seen that since the late '90s. i can give you data point after data point of things we haven't seen in ten to 20 years. but the difference between the economy at the end of the clinton administration and the economy today is that we're not seeing the shared prosperity we saw at the end of the clinton administration. >> right. >> and that is a big part of the unfinished business. >> secretary always good to talk to you. >> absolutely. >> united states secretary of labor. politicians like to say they feel our pain but one governor

actually knows what it's like to be unemployed. >> when you are out of work for six months it changes your relationship with your family and friends. it changes your image in the mirror. some of the confidence moves away. >> john hickenlooper governor. hit >> music superstar akon >> it is a way for me to make money. it's clearly a business >> lending his voice to those in need >> i'm in a position where i can make a difference >> his goal, to have africa be part of the modern world >> if you wanna keep africa stable, there has to be elections >> every monday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera part of our special black history month coverage on al jazeea america

>> today's employment report includes the not so surprising news that the oil and gas industry lost 1900 jobs in january. analysts expect to see bigger layoffs in the months ahead. the reason of course is that falling oil prices are forcing oil companies to cut costs and that means financial pain for thousands of workers. one man who understands the pain better than most is john hickenlooper, the governor of colorado. that's why he lost his job as an exploration geologist, in the 1980s. back then he reinvented himself. i caught up with the governor in dabo switzerland at the world economic forum. i asked him why he gave up on energy and switched to brew pubz pubs. >> the recession in the 1980s was every bit as

bad as for everyone else. we saw a brew pub, and i thought i would drive 20 minutes out of the way to taste a beer this good. i was a geologist, i didn't know anything about business so we opened the first brew pub, the first restaurant that bruce bruise brews its other than beer, in colorado. we worked like any entrepreneur for the first year, we opened one in fort collins and colorado spription, springs. they took off. i couldn't get my own mother to invest. my sister jane invested 10 grand. i wanted to make sure i didn't lose her investment. when it took off i thought oh my god i don't have to work

anymore. we had made good investments. i tell people the price of oil went from about $38 back then down to $6 and when it didn't recover never got above 8, 8 or 10, i went from going from one liquid to beer with co2 in it. but if the price of oil had been even -- and we sold our beer let's see we would sell four bucks in a pint, we were getting about $750 a barrel for our beer in the tavern. if the price of oil would be 1/10 of that i would still be a geologist. >> designing themselves to be one thing and the economy didn't support this and you went and started your own business. this was in 19 -- >> i got laid off in 1986. and we opened in october of 1988. >> can that story still happen today in

america? >> sure. but when i talk about it i make it sound kind of fun and easy. >> it never is. >> i was out of work for two years and certainly the first six or eight years i months i was out looking for a job as a geologist. it changes your relationship with your family and friends you see a different person in the mirror and some of your old confidence starts to he ebb away. no one saw a brew pub before. someone that no one's been doing or a problem that no one identifies, you solve that problem. but if no one identifies it it's hard to get investors because they don't believe in it. like any entrepreneur i.t. took a, it took along time to raise the money. america has to reinvent itself.

the revolution in technology and gps and smartphones, smartphones, it has marginalized a lot. >> a lot of people have lost their lives and their families. oxfam predicts that next year the top 1% controls more wealth than 99% of the world. we are doing something bad around the middle class, people like you who are trying to make a go of it either as a small business or getting a job. wages are stuck. you've got the same problem in colorado, lower unemployment but wages are not working in converse relationship to that, inverse relationship. what do we do? how do we fiction fix this problem? >> making sure someone who has laid off and their career has disappeared i think government has an obligation through community colleges, through

workforce training program, to a, identify those industries that are growing and b, make sure the disenfranchised workers, in colorado we have 6 600,000 people who have dropped out. get them a certificate but make sure they have a training that will get them a job in technology or aerospace or the industries that are growing and we've got to accelerate that process. >> up next it's black history month. some people are going to question the value of it. we're going to talk to one african american writer who says it's important to look beyond icons like martin luther king. stick around. >> monday. >> we're going to the bottom of the sea. >> deep submergence vehicles. >> three, zero, three, six. >> ocean experts have made some miraculous discoveries.

>> octopus everywhere. >> but are the most important discoveries yet to come? >> implications for energy and also for climate change. >> "techknow's" team of experts show you how the miracles of science. >> this is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future? >> can affect and surprise us. >> don't try this at home. >> "techknow", where technology meets humanity. monday, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america.

>> black history in america, a

growing movement of people question whether celebrating a month of black history does anything to improve the lives of black americans. so is it time to re-think the entire notion of a black history month? it's martin luther king day, 2015. marching bands perform, men walk on stilts. peek walk, arm in arm, singing. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> rewind just a few months earlier. a very different image. fires raging in ferguson missouri. protests over a grand jury decision not to indict darren wilson, a white officer who shot and killed a black teen. conflictingconflicting images of peace and protest that make up the fabric of what its

it means to be black in america. fires after the assassination of martin luther king. gathered in the capitol to hear dr. king's iconic speech. >> i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. >> the long march towards desegregation in america, often one step forward, two steps back. >> you are not effective for segregation. >> october ordered immediate desegregation in

mississippi. >> different than the children today and with it the notion of black history month has changed as well. >> people hope to gain by pressing the desegregation movement, what hopes are you hoping to achieve? >> we hope to achieve equal rights to any human being. >> how long do you think it will take? >> i have no idea. >> a modern debate who should succeed america's first black president? >> i have no more campaigns to run. my only agenda -- i know because i won both of them. >> rosa parks, barack obama, martin luther king, jr, all iconic figures, key to telling the black history month of america but not making life better for blacks in america. that's what ted johnson believes. he joins me tonight from boston.

ted thank you for being with us. tell me why you say black history month doesn't make black lives better, and do you think it's actually detrimental or just neutral? >> so first of all thanks for having me. >> a pleasure. >> so my point is that black history month is extremely important in that it helps us remember, gives us a time to pause and consider, remember the contributions of those that came before us. but if that's the extent of what the month celebrates, then it's falling short of what young people, black people in general, in fact the nation, need today. and that is, to be able to see the value of black lives just as been the source of much of the protests here in the past few months. so it's not that black history month isn't valuable. it is. it's just that it's not sufficient to celebrate things that happened 50, 60, 100 years ago and then pat ourselves on the back because we celebrated some very extraordinary individuals.

instead i think it should be a time we appreciate those individuals, black individuals who are here today continuing the work of those that have come before us. >> although i just enjoyed selma last week, it reminded me that where we are talking about voter i.d. laws today, in our current elections it is useful to have the context those are the things that were used to keep blacks who were given the right to vote, that is what was used to keep them away from elections. when you look at voter turnout issues, when you -- so many of these issues, martin luther king in the days before he died in the months before he died had really turned to economics and inequality a matter that continues the prevail today. show so how do we make those messages from the past just not inspirational but remarkably relevant today? >> the first thing i think we do is recognize that those things have changed. there are a bunch of things that remain the same. if you look at the black

unemployment rate in the '60s that spurred the march on washington, the black unemployment rate is still twice the rate as the rest of the country, the economy is bad, segregation in the school system and in housing not much has changed since 1960. so when we look at the young folks that are marching today it's not that they've forgetting their black history, in fact they are living it. black history doesn't mean it's historical, there's an appreciation of things that have happened in the past and we should appreciate the inspiration that has gotten us to where we are today. the wung thing i one thing i think we can do is there is a role for black folks in electoral politics that wasn't possible in the 1960s because of the disen disenfranchisement of blacks from voting. even that has been removed even though there are removal of

parsing of the act popping up, blacks today from all backgrounds, socioeconomic situations have the opportunity to run for office and not only make change in the street via protest but also make change in city hall and today in the white house. >> and yet while african americans turned out in record numbers in federal elections in those elections that often have much more to do with them state elections and local elections the turnout rate in most cases are lower than whites. >> that's true. though. this is an american problem. >> sure it is. >> absolutely. mid term elections as well as main elections, 5% turned out across the city for a mayoral election so it's an american problem. i do agree with you that particularly communities that have felt disenfranchised, in ferguson and college park that have largely white leadership in the

locality, those whites take examples. president obama is a great example but he's really not a tangible one for someone looking to run on the local school board. >> but it is the message that martin luther king had all those years ago. let me ask you about your own, there is something to symbolism your name ted johnson is full of imollism symbolism. >> my full name is theodore roosevelt johnson iii. my story began when president wilson was shot in the stock and theodore roosevelt his vice president became president. inviting booker t. washington to

come to the white house for dinner, making such a move, a black person sort of symbolizing equality of the races there was a segment that was really inspired by this and it was largely sharecroppers, black sharecroppers in the south and two of those were my grandfather, they named their second son theodore roosevelt johnson, here i am theodore rooz roosevelt johnson iii. i got to meet president barack obama in the white house. their dream came true. >> back in those days. ted good to talk to you thank you so much, for joining us. ted johnson is a writer often race and politics. as he mentioned he was a white house fellow in 2011 and 2012. that is our show today, i'm ali velshi thank you for joining us. have a great weekend.

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