September 7, 2014 by David K. Sutton
CHART: Obama’s Private Sector Job Growth vs. Clinton, Reagan
There are many inconvenient truths for Republicans and conservatives when it comes to President Obama’s achievements. For example, health care spending has slowed dramatically and Medicare is now spending $1000 less per beneficiary, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Another inconvenient truth for conservatives is that the private sector has consistently added jobs over the last four years. In fact, with the August job numbers showing 142,000 jobs added, it marks the 54th consecutive month of private sector job growth under this president.
Let’s put this in perspective, and I must ask Republicans and conservatives to pay extra special attention. We look back fondly on the 1990s and the Clinton era economy. In fact, even many Republicans point to this time as a model when they criticize Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet even with this misguided criticism, the truth remains that President Obama has managed to break President Clinton’s private sector job growth record. Yeah, you heard that right. Clinton’s record was 51 consecutive months (from February 1996 to April 2000). Obama’s 54 consecutive months is the longest streak since these stats started being tracked in 1939. Or in other words, the two longest private sector job growth streaks occurred during Democratic presidencies. Republicans have yet to learn that rhetoric can only take you so far, especially when you have charts like this:
But it gets even worse for Republicans when you compare Obama’s record to their beloved President Reagan. Remember, Obama and Reagan inherited similarly poor economies when they each took office. Both presided over economic expansions following deep recessions. In many ways, the economy Obama inherited was worse than the economy Reagan inherited (after all, we call the most recent recession the “Great Recession”), and somehow, yet again, and counter to Republican rhetoric, this president has managed to preside over a better jobs situation than did Reagan. Again, a chart tells the story:
Chart by Bob Deitrick
Bob Deitrick – “President Reagan has long been considered the best modern economic President. So we compared his performance dealing with the oil-induced recession of the 1980s with that of President Obama and his performance during this ‘Great Recession.’
As this unemployment chart shows, President Obama’s job creation kept unemployment from peaking at as high a level as President Reagan, and promoted people into the workforce faster than President Reagan.
President Obama has achieved a 6.1% unemployment rate in his 6th year, fully one year faster than President Reagan did.
That’s an inconsolable truth for Republicans.
