Republican politicians like to say that Obamacare (AKA the Affordable Care Act or ACA) is a “job killer.” Here’s Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on “Face the Nation” on February 22:
Why not delay all of the mandates in Obamacare [which] has become such a job killer in our economy.
I thought about these claims when I read the latest Labor Department numbers, which showed that the economy added 288,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1%. If Obamacare is a job killer, it’s the worst job killer ever.
The ACA has been in effect since January 1 of this year. Enrollment for the ACA began on October 1, 2013, but the insurance took effect on January 1 of this year. What impact did that have on employment?
Here’s a graph and a chart of the actual numbers, based on the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics Numbers. I’ve gone back to January 2001 to provide some historical context. Here’s the graph:
Here’s the chart showing the actual numbers since January 2001.
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
2001 -30 72 -25 -281 -38 -129 -115 -158 -242 -324 -294 -171
2002 -142 -133 -19 -80 -8 57 -85 -15 -60 125 10 -158
2003 94 -153 -210 -45 -11 10 23 -41 102 196 16 124
2004 161 44 332 249 307 74 32 132 162 346 65 129
2005 134 239 134 363 175 245 373 196 67 84 337 159
2006 277 315 280 182 23 77 207 184 157 2 210 171
2007 238 88 188 78 144 71 -33 -16 85 82 118 97
2008 15 -86 -80 -214 -182 -172 -210 -259 -452 -474 -765 -697
2009 -798 -701 -826 -684 -354 -467 -327 -216 -227 -198 -6 -283
2010 18 -50 156 251 516 -122 -61 -42 -57 241 137 71
2011 70 168 212 322 102 217 106 122 221 183 164 196
2012 360 226 243 96 110 88 160 150 161 225 203 214
2013 197 280 141 203 199 201 149 202 164 237 274 84
2014 144 222 203 304 224(P) 288(P)
P : preliminary
Clearly the job numbers bounce around from month to month. They did during the Bush years, and they are bouncing around now. The market crash of 2008 had a devastating impact on employment, but things certainly improved in 2011. Since then, job creation has been roughly the same as it was from 2004 to 2007. The implementation of the ACA doesn’t seem to have had much impact on job creation.
Job growth was roughly 150,000 per month in 2013, before the ACA took effect, and roughly 200,000 in the since months since it took effect.
If Obamacare was a job killer wouldn’t that show up in the employment numbers?
So, clearly it can’t really be labeled a “job killer.” So Republican claims are a bunch of crap. I’m not even remotely surprised by that. I’m not surprised that there is generally no relation between fact and what comes out of many Republican politicians’ mouths. I’m used to that.
What surprises me, or perhaps disappoints me, is that they get away with it so easily. I know the liberal blogosphere takes them to task, but most major news outlets don’t ever ask why they were so wrong. Maybe they’re so used to the Republican lies that it has just become background noise.