Obama Created More Jobs in One Year Than Bush Created in Eight
Friday 07 January 2011
by: Alex Seitz-Wald | ThinkProgress | Report
(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 — its lowest rate since July 2009. The “surprising drop — which was far better than the modest step-down economists had forecast — was the steepest one-month fall since 1998.” October and November’s 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 “more jobs in 2010 than President Bush did over eight years.”
Indeed, from February 2001, Bush’s 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 Pelosi’s 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 Bush’s term, the former president had the “worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.” And job creation under Bush was anemic long before the recession began. Bush’s supply-side economics “fostered the weakest jobs and income growth in more than six decades,” along with “sluggish business investment and weak gross domestic product growth,” the Center for American Progress’ Joshua Picker explained. “On every major measurement” of income and employment, “the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms,” the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein observed, parsing Census data.
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Paul Craig Roberts, who was
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 10:45 — mcthorogood (not verified)Paul Craig Roberts, who was the assistant to the treasury during the Reagan administration, writes, "... when work in general moves offshore, Americans lose the income associated with the production of the goods they consume." Since the 1980's, higher paying jobs were moved overseas in the quest for higher profits, leaving America with a service-sector economy. The profits from moving jobs overseas went to CEO bonuses and to the shareholders, i.e., the rich got richer.
The most frustrating aspect
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 11:33 — de la izquierda (not verified)The most frustrating aspect of waiting for the "liberal" media to reappear is when they insist on comparing Obama to Bush. Wars continue, small children still get murdered in countries we occupy, racism is in vogue again and the rich get richer. Jobs? Give me a break. If Obama is supposed to be the second coming, his arrival is sadly disappointing.
I'm not looking to shit on
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 11:41 — Pat (not verified)I'm not looking to shit on Obama or praise Bush, but isn't this claim misleading? It's great that these jobs were created, but creating 1.1 million jobs after recession is easier than after economic boom.
Regardless, if Bush (or any other Republican) was in office for the recession, I am sure that this recovery would have been further delayed and slower. Let's hope Obama's policies do not spell hyper-inflation into the future :/
We would undoubtable be
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 15:16 — Phil Dennany (not verified)We would undoubtable be better off had both Bush and Obama done nothing at all. Their "work" has made the Big even bigger and fatter while putting more debt and decline on the People.
Undoubtably? Really? And
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 15:52 — deadhead (not verified)Undoubtably? Really? And from where do you get this confidence? Undoubtably, if the rich paid their fair share of taxes, we'd have more money.. No need to fear them pulling jobs -- they're already long gone. Now the rich just create garbage bonds from whole cloth with which to gamble away the rest of our economy? They get bored? They yawn and sit at the tables in Monte Carlo until they can dream up some new and better way to screw the average American . . . Rome is collapsing
Obama is America's best
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 16:00 — Anonymous (not verified)Obama is America's best president since WWII.
yes, i'm sure all those jobs
Sat, 01/08/2011 - 22:26 — Anonymous (not verified)yes, i'm sure all those jobs flipping burgers and waiting tables will certainly provide the middle class income those 20% of the population lost.
"Obama is America's best president since WWII."
Obama is reagan's evil twin.
the bastard has professed populism and reform while passing it in name only and ploughing right on through with the worst of bush's policies.
He is also assisting republicans in destroying what is left of american labor's ability to resist the long spiral-to-the-bottom by ploughing under unions and signing yet more "free trade" agreements to help multinationals ship yet more skilled jobs overseas.
Think it's only factory workers? Think again.
Americans should realize
Sun, 01/09/2011 - 08:42 — Anonymous (not verified)Americans should realize that the president is only a figurehead, like the guy sitting on the board on the watertank you throw baseballs at at a carnival. Wall Street and Corporate interests create jobs, and like a lot of others have said, the jobs that are being created are a joke. How is anyone going to afford mandated insurance on minimum wage??Meanwhile, Corporations are still making record profits. The congress has still not enacted the regulations for wall street after the bailouts, and the dems. have had control for 6 years. now that the repubs are back, more stalling will take place. Anyone see a pattern here? I think if the media reports this it should read. EAT MEAT..Support the Economy. Private sector adds 1 million jobs making burgers at Mcdonalds and cooking hotdogs at 7-11
The article mentions the %
Sun, 01/09/2011 - 09:25 — Anonymous (not verified)The article mentions the % unemployment as if had significant meaning. Most reasonable people know that labor statistics are based on job seakers and holders, and not those who want and need to work, but have been out too long to be included in the numbers. They include part time workers and the self employed who are currently out of work. The jobless rate in the US is probably a lot closer to the 20% rate than the 10% rate.
The state of the US economy would probably be much worse than it is now had the Republicans remained in power, but the help that the current Democratic Admin is providing is not being felt by the poor and the middle class. A very large number of the new jobs referred to in this article are also part-time and low paying. That's a very important indicator of where the national economy is going.
This "more jobs" and drop of .4% aren't much to crow about. If this is the best that a Democratic Admin can do, we are in serious trouble. The situation is crying for change.
You're more at sea than the
Mon, 01/10/2011 - 11:20 — Anonymous (not verified)You're more at sea than the tea murderers, 03:26. They at least understand Obama in all sorts of ways is undermining Reagan's miserable legacy. Obama's not a revolutionary or a socialist, nor was he elected to be, but within our corporate-imperial framework he's pulling to the left more so than any prez has since FDR.