President George W. Bush took a beating during the 2004 presidential campaign.  Time and time again, his opponent pointed out that Bush was responsible for the loss of thousands of jobs.  In fact, cited Democrat John Kerry, Bush is the first president in over seventy years to finish his term by losing more jobs than he created.  That means that no president since the Great Depression has had that stain on his record.

 

Despite his critics, George W. Bush won the election. While the American people value their job market and economy, there were also plenty of other issues to vote on (i.e. Iraq, terrorism, education, health care, etc.).  Now that it’s all over, it’s interesting to look back and evaluate both the critics and advocates of the president.  Did George W. Bush really lose thousands of jobs?

 

For starters, it’s important to note that neither George W. Bush nor any other president ever really created a job or lost one.  That’s done by business owners and others who work in the private sector.  The best that a president can ever hope to do is create an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurs and others who want to expand their business ventures.

 

With that said, was the job market better or worse before George W. Bush became president?  Well, it’s complicated.  It depends on whether you include agricultural related jobs, government employees, and the self-employed.  All of those scenarios will give you different results.

 

If it sounds to you like we’re avoiding the question—you’re right.  We don’t really know if George W. Bush created more jobs than he lost (again, it depends on how you look at it).  The only thing that we can safely say is that the job market did grow more slowly during the first few years of the 21^st century than it did during the mid-1990s. 

 

Democrats, of course, will be quick to point out that Bill Clinton was president when the economy was really booming.  That’s true.  Clinton increased new jobs by over 10% in both of his terms.  But it’s not fair to blame a lackluster job market on George W. Bush.  The September 11^th terrorist attacks, the War in Iraq, and the natural ups and downs of the economy certainly played their role.  There’s another viewpoint that will also cut President Bush a little slack.  Let’s view the economy with a “historical perspective.” 

 

President Herbert Hoover, who served during the Great Depression, was the last president to lose more jobs than he created.  It’s not fair to compare Bush to Hoover.  The economy is far more stable now than it was in the early 1930s, at the start of the Great Depression.

 

The current unemployment rate in the United States is less than 6%.  During the Great Depression, it was over 25%.  That means that a quarter of the American people couldn’t find a job.  Many of them did not know where their next meal was coming from.  Today, over half of those who live under the “poverty” line still own a color television and a microwave.  While poverty is a real problem, it is not as serious as it was during the Great Depression. 

 

Poverty can be extremely difficult for the individuals who are faced with it, but it does not threaten the American public as a whole.  Today, over 500% more jobs exist in the United States than existed when Hoover was serving as president (the population has only increased by half of that amount).

 

If things are so great, then how is it possible for George W. Bush to be the only president to leave office with less jobs than he created.  Part of the reason could be because Bill Clinton did so well in the mid-1990s.  During that time, the computer industry skyrocketed during the “dot com” craze.  That was bound to die down.  Fortunately for President Clinton, it didn’t completely fall apart until George W. Bush took office in 2000.

 

Many economists note that the ability of the economy to stay relatively healthy after September 11^th , not to mention the ongoing threat of terrorism, proves that the economy is extremely stable.  That doesn’t mean that its okay to lose jobs—it’s important for the economy to continue to grow.  Fortunately, the 2004 election put this issue on center stage, and the Bush administration will certainly be watching the job market with a close eye.