Obama Created More Jobs in One Year Than Bush Created in Eight

Friday 07 January 2011

by: Alex Seitz-Wald | T

Obama Created More Jobs in One Year Than Bush Created in Eight
(Photo: Siemar / Flickr)

Yesterday morning, the Labor Department released its employment data for December, showing that the U.S. economy ended the year by adding 113,000 private sector jobs, knocking the unemployment rate down sharply from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent Ñ its lowest rate since July 2009. The Òsurprising drop Ñ which was far better than the modest step-down economists had forecast Ñ was the steepest one-month fall since 1998.Ó October and NovemberÕs jobs numbers were also revised upward by almost 80,000 each. Still, 14.5 million Americans remain unemployed, and jobs will have to be created much faster in coming months for the country to pull itself out of the economic doldrums.

Responding the jobs report, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) noted that President Obama and the Democratic Congress have created Òmore jobs in 2010 than President Bush did over eight years.Ó

Indeed, from February 2001, BushÕs first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, the economy added just 1 million jobs. By contrast, in 2010 alone, the economy added at least 1.1 million jobs. This chart, produced by PelosiÕs office, demonstrates the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration on jobs:

As the Wall Street Journal noted in the last month of BushÕs term, the former president had the Òworst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.Ó And job creation under Bush was anemic long before the recession began. BushÕs supply-side economics Òfostered the weakest jobs and income growth in more than six decades,Ó along with Òsluggish business investment and weak gross domestic product growth,Ó the Center for American ProgressÕ Joshua Picker explained. ÒOn every major measurementÓ of income and employment, Òthe country lost ground during BushÕs two terms,Ó the National JournalÕs Ron Brownstein observed, parsing Census data.