The Recovery Continues
4.7 million private sector jobs have been added in the 37 months since the start of Fiscal Year 2009 (the first Obama budget and, incidentally, the end of the Bush Jr. recession) through today's employment report. Compare that to the 3 million jobs LOST during the eight Bush Jr. budget years. And that's what the R&R boys would have us going back to?
Source:
Bureau of Labor Statistics; Current Employment Statistics Historical Data Table B-1
Bonus Material
By way of comparison, private sector job growth in the three administrations prior to Dubbya:
Clinton: 18 million; Bush Sr.: 1.8 million; Reagan: 15 million.
Looked at another way:
20 years of Reagan/Bush/Bush produced 13.8 million jobs or 690,000 per year.
11 years and counting of Clinton/Obama have added 22.7 million jobs or 2.1 million per year. So which economic policies would the R&R boys have us follow?
Pop Quiz
Those are the numbers for the private sector. How about the government sector, specifically the Federal government? Before looking at the answer, rank the previous five administrations in terms of increasing/decreasing the size of government.
The thing that irks us numbers guys is how myth is taken for fact when hard data is just a mouse-click away. To wit: Republicans have been "shrinking" the government. Bullshit.
Here are the numbers for Federal Government job growth/loss from 1981:
Reagan: + 207,000
Bush Sr.: -70,000
Clinton: -287,000
Bush Jr.: +59,000
Obama: + 42.000
The winner and champion Government Bloater: Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Source
BLS Table B-1 (click Government>Federal)