2010-11-08 04:24:00
A Breakdown of Non-Farm Payroll Job Growth By President
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Every time that the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) releases the monthly employment numbers, one of the pieces of data that you will always hear quoted is “non-farm payroll employment”.
Non-farm payroll employment includes paid US workers of any business excluding government employees, farm employees, private household employees and “employees of nonprofit organizations that provide assistance” to individuals. Non-farm payroll accounts for “approximately 80% of the workers who produce the entire GDP of the United States”. (Source: Investopedia.com)
You will hear the non-farm payroll jobs number quoted all of the time, as it is a closely followed statistic.
Anyways, one of the readers of this site wondered if I could break down non-farm payroll job growth by president, so I’m going to do exactly that, using data from 1948 to 2010.
Here’s a breakdown of non-farm payroll job growth by president since 1948:
Cumulative Total of President Harry Truman (D): +5,586,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +93,100
Total Number of Months: 60
Cumulative Total of President Dwight Eisenhower (R): +3,579,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +37,281.25 jobs
Total Number of Months: 96
Cumulative Total of President John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson (D): +5,677,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +118,270.83
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Lyndon B. Johnson (D): +9,825,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +204,687.5
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford (R): +6,025,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +125,520.83
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Gerald Ford (R): +5,178,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +107,875
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Jimmy Carter (D): +10,488,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +218,500
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Ronald Reagan (R): +15,935,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +165,989.58
Total Number of Months: 96
Cumulative Total of President George H.W. Bush (R): +2,544,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +53,000
Total Number of Months: 48
Cumulative Total of President Bill Clinton (D): +23,070,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +240,312.5
Total Number of Months: 96
Cumulative Total of President George W. Bush (R): +1,843,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: +19,197.92
Total Number of Months: 96
Cumulative Total of President Barack Obama (D): -3,866,000 jobs
Average Jobs Per Month: -175,727.27
Total Number of Months: 22
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As you can see, the most non-farm payroll jobs were added during President Clinton’s eight year run from 1993-2000. Job growth was also strong during Jimmy Carter’s term (over 10 million added) and Ronald’s Reagan’s eight year stay in the White House (+15,935,000 jobs).
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Breaking it down re: Republican vs Democratic president, 50,780,000 non-farm payroll jobs have been added since 1948 when a Democratic president has been sitting in the White House, vs 35,104,000 nonfarm payroll jobs when a Republican has been sitting in the White House.
The average number of jobs added per month (322 months total) with a Democratic president has been 157,701, vs 81,259 (432 months) when a Republican has been in the White House.
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I know what some of you are saying - break this down by controlling House/Senate party as well. Don’t worry, I will definitely be doing another article later this week that will contain this information.
Sources: BLS.gov
Investopedia.com
Filed under: General Knowledge
9 COMMENTS - What Say You?
Comment by Beverly on December 31, 2010 @ 6:54 am
Glenn,
Thought you might find this data interesting.
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Comment by matt on January 12, 2011 @ 5:24 pm
your a good guy to go through that work.
as the population grows the percentage of new jobs would need to grow. Pop. in 2000 was 281 million, 2010. now 310 million. All things being equall we need to grow @ much higher numbers?
Thanks again for a great read.
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Comment by Jeff on February 17, 2011 @ 8:32 pm
Unless Obama starts churning them out at a record pace, he will become the first president to not create a single new job.
That would be transformational.
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Comment by Dave W. on April 13, 2011 @ 4:26 am
Not create a single new job? Maybe you'd better check the numbers. It was the "growth" he inherited from the previous administration that has caused him to play the "catch up" game. Obama has created MANY new jobs. Does the GW Bush tally take into account ALL of the jobs lost during this great recession?
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Comment by Jon on May 20, 2011 @ 12:36 am
"Obama... will become the first president to not create a single new job." What a ridiculous comment. It's sort of like if I borrow your car, crash it, return it to you without fixing it, and then criticize you for driving a wrecked car. The graph of job losses from late 2008 and 2009 looks like an upside down pyramid, with precipitous decline at the end of the Bush era and steep improvement just after Obama became president.
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Comment by Rod on July 11, 2011 @ 12:18 pm
You are clearly correct. Obama's policies have been such winners that without them, we would have lost in the 10's of millions of jobs. With all of the federal spending in his bills, bailouts, stimulus, healthcare...etc, we were told they would add millions of workers to the payroll. instead, we hear the bogus "saved or created" which is a totally improvable statistic. the cost per job in the 1 trillion $ stimulus was well over $100K no matter what calculation you use. Seems to me if the Keynesian model worked, we should have seen better production out of the money spent but all rational thinking people know that this is completely stupid and irrational. But the blame Bush crowd will be able to hang their hat on him indefinitely I guess.
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Comment by Bill on July 30, 2012 @ 3:03 pm
There are 2 million fewer job available now than when obongo took office. Fact.
He is a disaster.
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Comment by Chuck on September 06, 2012 @ 1:50 am
Lets get back to that good old trickle down theory, it has always done well for the poor and middle class in the past!!!
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Comment by Mike on October 12, 2012 @ 1:09 pm
The use of the term Obango is just plain racist. Bush IS to blame for the Bush recession job losses that terminated at the end of 2009. It's the blame Obama crowd that conveniently blames Obama for what Bush caused based on his and his party's policies. To deny this is just sheer idiocy and dishonesty.
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