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Today's show is all about numbers. The shrinking number of restaurant workers. The crazy numbers of lumber prices but we're going to start with this one, 331,449,281.
That's the number of people living in the United States according to the 2020 Census. The U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2 says that an enumeration, a count of America's people should be carried out every 10 years and that this is how the number of representatives in the U.S. House is determined.
There are 435 voting members in that chamber of Congress. The Constitution says each state gets at least one but most states have significantly more than that. The bigger their population, the more representatives they have in the House. Because Americans commonly move around, it's not unusual for some states to lose House seats while others gain them and there will be changes in store for the years ahead. Here's CNN's Census Acting Director Dr. Ron S. Jarmin.
DR. RON S. JARMIN, CNN CENSUS ACTING DIRECTOR: Six states will gain seats in the House of Representatives. Texas will gain two seats and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat. Seven states will each lose one seat in the House, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
AZUZ: Political analysts say the changes benefit Republicans more than Democrats. And though Democrats control the House now, the majority they have in order to do that is a slim one. Democrats hold 218 seats. Republicans hold 212 seats. There are five vacancies. The entire House of Representatives is up for election every two years with 2022 being the next vote.
If Americans were to vote in that election in a similar way to how they voted in the last one, it's possible Republicans could take control of the House based on the changes from the U.S. Census count. Of course, that won't be the only factor. The House make-up often flips back and forth especially in a president's first term.
But it's one reason why the census is significant to the U.S. government. Up next, help wanted. After coronavirus entered America, restaurants were some of the hardest hit businesses during the mandatory shutdowns of last year. The National Restaurant Association says that as of last December, more than 110,000 places to eat and drink had been shut down either temporarily or permanently.
In 2020, 5.5 million jobs were lost from March to April alone. Today, some of those jobs are coming back and restrictions on indoor dining are being lifted if they haven't been already. But many of the restaurants that survived are facing a new challenge, they can't find workers.
