A Breakdown of Non-Farm Payroll Job Growth By President

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