Guest post: The Obama Record after 3 years – Jobs and GDP

by Jon Hammond at Econographia

Guest post:  The Obama Record after 3 years – Jobs and GDP

The performance of the economy over President Obama’s tenure to date has been much discussed in light of the severe contraction that began in December 2007 .. and the policies implemented to correct course and restore growth. As of early 2012, the economic recovery shows signs of gathering momentum. Since the enactment of the Recovery Act .. and especially now with the presidential campaign season heating up .. misrepresentations have been piling up. Despite the fact that the economy has been creating jobs for 22 consecutive months, his opponents continue to attack his record … a recent example: “This president has been on the attack and has been a job killer,” GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney told a town hall meeting in Salem, N.H. Another example: “Either the president’s economic policies are killing this economy, or his lack of leadership,” Rick Santorum said in September. “Either way, President Obama is to blame.”

Here’s the factual record on economic growth and private sector job growth. In both cases, the graph displays the data points from the beginning of January 2007, showing the run-up to the Recession, followed by the enactment of the Recovery Act and the subsequent recovery through December 2011.

The two graphs below display:

Quarterly Real GDP, Q1 2007 though Q3 2011, sourced from BEA NIPA table 1.1.6 here:
Private Sector Jobs, monthly net change January 2007 through December 2011, sourced from the BLS data series CES0500000001 here:

Quarterly Real GDP Q1 2007 – Q3 2011, billions 2005 dollars:

Net Private Sector Jobs January 2007 – December 2011, month-over-month change (000s):

As the historical record clearly shows, the economy has rebounded to pre-recession levels in both economic output and private sector job growth. Since NBER declared an end to the Recession (June 2009), the economy restored almost 700 billion in real GDP and has added a net 1,992,000 private sector jobs. Moreover, from January 2010 through December 2011, the business sector has generated net job growth of over 3,000,000 jobs. The partisan rhetoric simply doesn’t match the record.

(I will comment in comments.)