The unemployment records of Presidents Obama and Bush II

In this post, I'm going to compare the Obama record on unemployment with that of the second President Bush. The data clearly shows that President Obama actually has a better record in reducing unemployment than his predecessor.

The Bush Record

Here (data courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics) is a graph of the unemployment rate by month for President George W Bush's first term:

Unemployment rate for President Bush's first term

Unemployment was 4.2% at the end of President Bush's first full month in office (February 2001), and higher (5.4%) in October 2004, near the end of his first term. Despite two rounds of tax cuts.

The Obama Record

Here's the same graph for President Obama's first term thus far.

Unemployment rate for President Obama's first term

Unemployment was 8.3% at the end of President Obama's first full month in office (February 2009), and lower (7.8%) now.

In my previous post, I showed that this recession is both longer and more severe than the one during President Bush's first term. Despite the milder, shorter recession, unemployment at this point in President Bush's first term was higher than after his first full month in office. And despite the longer, more severe recession, unemployment at this point in President Obama's first term is lower than after his first full month in office.

If we line up their starting points (the end of their respective first full months in office), here's what we get:

First term unemployment rates for Bush (blue) and Obama (pink)

The conclusion is unavoidable. President Obama has a significantly better record on unemployment at this point in his administration than did President Bush.