What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office Compared To Now? (September 2012 update)

This report has been updated for AUGUST 2016 HERE

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All August 2016 reports and details HERE.
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This report is outdated.  For current reports, please click on one of the links above. 

What was the unemployment rate when Bush left office and Obama was inaugurated? 7.8%

What was the unemployment rate after Obama's first full month in office (February 2009)?  8.3%

What was the unemployment rate at peak?  10.0%

What is today's (September 2012's) unemployment rate?   7.8%

All Latest Jobs and Unemployment Reports HERE

How many people were looking for work when Obama was inaugurated; how many were working?  And how many people are looking for work and how many are employed now?

• What Caused the Rise in Unemployment When Obama Took Office?  Obama caused the unemployment rate to rise?  (Continue reading; the answer  is below.)
•  What Was the Unemployment Rate When Bush Took Office?  How high did it rise?  (The answer is also below.)  

The following chart shows unemployment in three month intervals:

Private & Government Jobs Gained & Lost Under Obama (September 2012 update)

This report has been updated with numbers for January 2013:
Private & Government Jobs Gained & Lost Under Obama (Updated for January)


How Many GOVERNMENT Jobs Lost or Created Under Obama? (Jan 2013 update; Federal, State, Local breakdown)

Other January Jobs Numbers & Reports:
January 2013 Jobs Reports Summary

How many jobs (total, private, and government) have been lost or gained since Obama was inaugurated?  

• 4,317,000 TOTAL jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST in from the time Obama took office until the "trough" of the recession in early 2010.  That's a decrease of 3.2%.    
• 4,256,000 jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012.  That's an increase of 3.29%.
• In total, 61,000  jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012.  That's a decrease of 0.05% (half of a percent). *
• We have experienced 24 months WITHOUT job losses since September 2010.  We have ADDED 3,615,000 jobs during those 24 months. 
• We now have 133,500,000 TOTAL non-farm jobs. 

With Benchmark Revisions:

• 4,317,000 TOTAL jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST in from the time Obama took office until the "trough" of the recession in early 2010.  That's a decrease of 3.2%.    
• 4,642,000 jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012. 
• In total, 325,000  jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were ADDED from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012.   
• We now have 133,886,000 TOTAL non-farm jobs. 

* Click on the link for information about Benchmark Revisions which were released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The BLS databases will not be updated with these new numbers until January 2013.

*  These are all net figures, meaning that they represent the total number of jobs at the end of a reporting period.  All losses have been subtracted from all gains and vice verse.

*  Though, as of July 2012, we still have fewer jobs (in adjusted numbers) than when President Obama took office, jobs are being added at a faster clip under Obama than under George Bush at the same time in his presidency.  At this point in Bush's presidency (July 2004), there were still 978,000 FEWER jobs than when he was inaugurated in January 2001 (compared to 316,000 FEWER for Obama).  The number of jobs didn't eclipse the number when Bush was first inaugurated until February 2005, in Bush's second term.  (This will be updated for September in the next few days.)  

All jobs numbers & reports  (September 2012 & and all 2011 & 2012 Updates) indexed HERE!!

September 27th Important Jobs Update: Good News- 386,000 More Jobs Than Estimated.

How many PRIVATE sector jobs have been lost or gained since Obama was inaugurated?

• 4,213,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until the "trough" of the recession in early 2010.  That's a decrease of 3.8%.
• 4,727,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were GAINED OR CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012.  That's an increase of 4.43%.
• In total, 514,000 private sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) have been GAINED from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012.  That's a net increase of 0.46%. *
• We have experienced 31 months of positive private-sector job GROWTH from February 2010 until September 2012.  We have added 4,727,000 private-sector jobs during those 31 months.    
• We now have 111,499,000  PRIVATE sector non-farm jobs.

With Benchmark Revisions:

• 4,213,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until the "trough" of the recession in early 2010.  
• 5,180,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were GAINED OR CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012. 
• In total, 967,000 private sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) have been GAINED from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012. 
• We now have 111,952,000 PRIVATE sector non-farm jobs.

*Though, as of July 2012, we still have fewer private-sector jobs (in adjusted numbers) than when President Obama took office, jobs are being added at a faster clip under Obama than under George Bush at the same time in his presidency.  At this point in Bush's presidency (July 2004), there were still 1,749,000 FEWER private sector jobs than when he was inaugurated in January 2001 (compared to 332,000 MORE for Obama).  The number of private-sector jobs didn't eclipse the number when Bush was first inaugurated until June 2005, in Bush's second term.  (This will be updated with September numbers in the next few days.)        

How many GOVERNMENT jobs have been lost or gained since Obama was inaugurated?

• 102,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until the "trough" of the recession in early 2010.  That's a decrease of  .47%  (about half of a percent). 
• Another 473,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.10%.    
• In total, 575,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.55%.  A large portion of these jobs, 209,000, have been lost in the "Local Government - Education" sector. (Teachers.)
• We have experienced decreases in the number of government jobs in 21 out of the last 28 months, starting in June 2010, when the layoff of 2010 Census workers began.  However, we have experienced slight increases in the number of government jobs in the last 3 consecutive months.   
• We now have 22,001,000 GOVERNMENT jobs, not including people in the military.  (Civilians employed by the U.S. and working for the military are counted.)

With Benchmark Revisions:

• Another 473,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the "trough" of the recession until now, September 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.10%.    
• In total, 642,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until now, September 2012.
• We now have 21,934,000 GOVERNMENT jobs, not including people in the military.  (Civilians employed by the U.S. and working for the military are counted.)

(Note:  Current numbers taken from the June Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Report.  Historical numbers taken from various archived Employment Situation reports as indexed HERE. Specifics will be provided upon request; please email me or leave a comment.)

An afterthought---

A reader asks:

How Many Private Sector Jobs Were Lost Because of Obama?

We haven't lost ANY private sector jobs (net) since February 2010, a year after Obama took office.  Between January 2009 and February 2010, we lost 4,213,000 private sector jobs as stated above.

Should we "blame" Obama for not being immediately able to stem the tide of private sector job loss in 2009?  If a house is burning out of control and the fire department comes to put out the fire, it continues to burn until it is brought under control and cooled down, right?  Now.. would you blame the fire department for the continued fire and the time to put it out after the firefighters arrive on the scene?

Well, you might, but I wouldn't:  Here's my reasoning:  Burning Down the House!

So my answer to this question would be a big, fat ZERO.  I do NOT feel that Obama is to blame for any loss of jobs between January 2009 and February 2010.  If you think he is, please leave a comment and explain your reasoning!