Jobs: Obama Beats Bush
Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:29 am
According to Factcheck.org:
Now that we have figures for the full four years of Obama’s first term, a surprising fact emerges: The economy added more jobs during four years under Obama than it did in the entire eight years under Bush.
By the time of Obama’s second inaugural in January, the economy had added a net total of 1,208,000 jobs since he was first sworn in four years earlier, according to current figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That beats George W. Bush’s eight-year total of 1,083,000.
And so far, Obama is extending his lead over Bush. Counting jobs added in February, his total now stands at a net gain of over 1.5 million jobs.
Neither president’s record is good by historical standards, especially when compared with the 22.8 million jobs added during Bill Clinton’s eight years in office. The Bush years were hampered by a recession and prolonged job slump that began within weeks of his taking office in 2001, and later by the devastating recession of 2007-2009.
The economy lost 8.7 million jobs as a result of the 2007-2009 recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Those losses included 4.4 million jobs lost during Bush’s final year, and another 4.3 million during Obama’s first 13 months in office. But since then, all the jobs initially lost under Obama have been regained, plus another 1,564,000.
A note of caution: Figures are subject to later revision as the Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to refine them. Job gains under Obama turned out to be somewhat larger than reported initially after the BLS completed its annual “benchmark” corrections, for example. Also, figures for February and March are still “preliminary” and could be revised — up or down — when the April figures are released in May.
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This was written a month ago, so of course the figures are actually better since the jobs report for May.
Now that we have figures for the full four years of Obama’s first term, a surprising fact emerges: The economy added more jobs during four years under Obama than it did in the entire eight years under Bush.
By the time of Obama’s second inaugural in January, the economy had added a net total of 1,208,000 jobs since he was first sworn in four years earlier, according to current figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That beats George W. Bush’s eight-year total of 1,083,000.
And so far, Obama is extending his lead over Bush. Counting jobs added in February, his total now stands at a net gain of over 1.5 million jobs.
Neither president’s record is good by historical standards, especially when compared with the 22.8 million jobs added during Bill Clinton’s eight years in office. The Bush years were hampered by a recession and prolonged job slump that began within weeks of his taking office in 2001, and later by the devastating recession of 2007-2009.
The economy lost 8.7 million jobs as a result of the 2007-2009 recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Those losses included 4.4 million jobs lost during Bush’s final year, and another 4.3 million during Obama’s first 13 months in office. But since then, all the jobs initially lost under Obama have been regained, plus another 1,564,000.
A note of caution: Figures are subject to later revision as the Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to refine them. Job gains under Obama turned out to be somewhat larger than reported initially after the BLS completed its annual “benchmark” corrections, for example. Also, figures for February and March are still “preliminary” and could be revised — up or down — when the April figures are released in May.
============
This was written a month ago, so of course the figures are actually better since the jobs report for May.