Facts About Jobs Before and Since Obama (August 2012)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provided unemployment and job market numbers on Friday for the period of August 2012. With 103,000 private sector jobs added in August and 7,000 public sector/government jobs eliminated, the report reflected a disappointing net gain of 96,000 new jobs.

The Bureau's August release also shows a reduction in the unemployment rate from 8.3% to 8.1%. While this is positive news on its face, the decline in the unemployment rate results mostly from a decrease in the number of Americans who are seeking work, not from an increase in the number of newly created jobs.

The big picture bad news embedded in the August job statistics is that the economy and job market continue to recover at a pace which almost everyone, including the President, finds to be unacceptably sluggish.

The good news is we now have 30 consecutive months of positive job growth. Additionally, according to Steve Benen on the Maddow Blog, in the first eight months of 2012 the economy yielded 1.2 million new private sector jobs, which is already better than five of the eight Bush/Cheney years in their entirety.

Our choices in the upcoming presidential election are becoming increasingly clear. Some of us will decide that President Obama has made the right choices and opt to give him four more years to finish the job of repairing a devastated economy. Others will conclude that the speed of the recovery is simply unacceptable and will opt for the Romney alternative.

Regardless of your choice, I believe it's important to pursue and process the unadulterated facts. The graph above represents actual job growth results and trends (red = Bush, blue = Obama), which I believe illustrate simply and plainly the real world impact of the policies of the current and prior White House administrations.

By the end of the Bush administration, we were losing more than 600,000 jobs per month. Under President Obama job growth has been slow, but steady and positive.

My question for Mr. Romney is this - what specifically are you proposing that is different from the Bush-era policies that led to so much of the "red ink" and job loss in the chart above?

Obama's "Job-Killing" Results In 4 Million Jobs

Republican presidential candidates love to criticize President Obama's "job-killing" policies, citing specifically his penchant for over-regulation and his wasted stimulus spending. Each month's updated employment statistics, however, totally contradict the right-wing rhetoric, proving it to be nothing more than fabrication and fiction.

The February jobs report was released today by the Department of Labor, and for the third consecutive month, our economy benefitted from the creation of more than 200,000 new jobs. 

Additionally, nearly 500,000 job-seekers who had stopped looking for work have re-ignited their search for gainful employment. Amazingly, job growth has been so robust that even with this massive influx of workers added back into the equation, the unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3%. 

Campaign rhetoric is often nothing more than empty words, but facts are facts. Below is a chart that shows our actual employment statistics in the twelve months before Obama compared to the three years since Obama. 

Viewing Tip: Clicking on the chart should open a larger easier-to-read version.

Dept of Labor Employment Statistics, Feb 2012

The fact is that America has enjoyed 24 consecutive months of job growth, resulting in more than 4 million newly created jobs in the last two years. 

Consequently, I ask you all to join me in imploring President Obama to absolutely continue the implementation of the horrific "job-killing" policies that Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul have warned us against. I'd rather live with steady progress and bombastic right-wing criticism, than return to the glory days of the Bush-era economy.

Facts About Jobs - Before and Since Obama

UPDATE: The chart below has been updated to reflect Bureau of Labor stats thru September 2012. Click here for the revised chart.



This graph is the simplest and most honest representation I have seen of the employment environment that President Obama "inherited" and the results accomplished since he took office.

Viewing Tip: Clicking on the chart should open a larger easier-to-read version.

The two stories told by this chart are readily apparent.

1. By the time Bush left office, job creation (or job elimination more correctly) was trending increasingly negative each month. In the first year of Obama, results steadily improved, and in the almost two years since then, we have enjoyed positive job growth in 17 of the last 21 months.
2. The unemployment rate peaked at the end of Obama's first year, and since then has shown steady improvement.

Each of us is free to "feel" however we want about the Obama presidency, but these are the facts as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The only rational way to interpret these facts is to recognize that Barack Obama inherited an employment scenario that was in a total tailspin, and that just a few months into his presidency, a jobs recovery began that continues today. Maybe the turnaround hasn't happened at the speed with which we all hoped it would (and I would submit that maybe our expectations were unrealistic), but the trend on Obama's watch has been consistently and undeniably positive.

Print this one out and take it to your cocktail parties. There is no disputing the facts.


Related Posts: Unemployment Rate Falls Dramatically

Unemployment Rate Falls Dramatically to 8.6%

Photo: Getty Images

The U.S. jobless rate has declined to 8.6%, the lowest overall unemployment figure in nearly three years.

The primary figure used in the unemployment rate calculation, non-farm payroll, showed an increased of 120,000 jobs in the month of November. This number is the net total increase in jobs, reflecting the creation of 140,000 private sector jobs and the elimination of 20,000 public sector/government jobs.

The increase in jobs was driven largely by hiring in the retail sector, with companies like Macy's and Toys-R-Us gearing up for the busy holiday season. While some of the newly created positions are temporary, the overall employment picture is nonetheless encouraging (after all, temp jobs count in the calculation every holiday season, and the current jobless rate is still significantly lower than it was in November 2009 or 2010).

UPDATED: 110,000 Jobs Created in October

Job creation exceeded expectations in the last two months. In October 110,000 new private sector jobs were created (which more than offset the 24,000 public sector jobs that were lost), and the Labor Department also revised September numbers up to 116,000 (25,000 more than originally reported). While growth is slow, the overall employment outlook is looking a little less bleak.

The private sector job growth had a small but positive impact on the nation's unemployment rate, which dipped from 9.1% to 9.0%, the lowest rate in six months.

My gut feeling (this is the opinion element of a blog that your friends warned you about) is that it will take little additional movement of the nation's unemployment number (a modest reduction to 8.5% or 8.6%) to get consumer confidence kicked up significantly and to secure re-election for Obama. Sometimes, you just need a little something to feel good about.

Revised on Saturday 11/5/2011