Did Obama Add More Jobs Per Month than Trump? – IOTW Report

Did Obama Add More Jobs Per Month than Trump?

Bongino: Did Obama create more jobs than Trump? Despite the lowest unemployment in 50 years, a new Forbes article by Chuck Jones argues that Obama had a far more impressive economic track record.

Why? Because Obama has (on average) added more jobs per month over the course of his presidency than Trump has thus far. As he writes:

Trump entered office on January 20, 2017, and starting with February 2017 he has been President for 29 months. Total job growth during that time has been 5.613 million or 194,000 per month with those results being helped by the tax cut.

Working back from January 2017, Obama’s last month in office, there had been 6.423 million jobs added or 221,000 per month. The difference for the 29 months is 810,000 more jobs or 27,000 more per month than Trump.

Ironically, this is true precisely because we have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. It’s much easier to add more jobs than you’re reducing unemployment from 10% (as Obama did) than when you take office at 4.7%.

In any economy there is a natural rate of unemployment, meaning that even in an economy where everyone who wants a job can find one, the unemployment rate won’t be zero. Why? Because some workers work jobs that result in seasonal unemployment, while others will be briefly unemployed in-between jobs.

Despite that, the Trump economy is so strong that the unemployment rate is below what the estimated minimum unemployment rate is. The St. Louis Federal Reserve calculates that the natural rate of unemployment is currently 4.6%, while the actual unemployment rate (as of June) is 3.6%. Because the unemployment rate is already below its theoretical minimum, we can essentially only add more jobs each month consistent with population growth (or proportional to the labor force participation rate increasing).

Or to give an impossible hypothetical to illustrate this point further; if the Trump economy were to be at the point where every single person was employed, nobody needed to change jobs, and there was no population growth, there would be zero jobs added per month, but that wouldn’t be reflective of economic weakness (quite the opposite).

Performance Versus Obama’s Baseline is What Matters. MORE

11 Comments on Did Obama Add More Jobs Per Month than Trump?

  1. Did Obutthole add more jobs??
    I guess you can twist the numbers and the facts.
    I had to work harder to stay in the same position and if I wanted to advance….I had to do more jobs for my boss then I ever did before, just to stay at the same level of destitution.

    I’m sure the narcissist that was in control of the demise of America can properly claim to have created more jobs then some but those jobs paid less and therefore required more work to be accomplished in order to keep one’s head above water.

    Not too different than a life-guard throwing small floating devices which will help keep you afloat…..if you collect enough of them.

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  2. We had 63% participation rate back in the late ’70s. Despite how many mothers have exercised their rights in order to work since then. You can add about 4% to the unemployment rate to adjust for participation.

    Speaking of things that remain low, how about them interest rates. Now they want to lower them again.

    Neither is a sign of a healthy economy.

    We’ve been in a long running recession starting in 2000, and a long running depression that started in 2007.

    Watch for all the easy money to unwind from stawks to pockets, skyrocketing inflation.

    It’s not all bad though, at least we’ve had an accommodating fed that has managed to kick the can down the road… only to make it much worse in the future.

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  3. Don’t forget all the worthless Chicongo-Way, no value, gummit jobs OHBLOWME added that cost tax payers hundreds of billions and delivered zero results. Well, except for more democommie voters

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