What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office Compared to Now?

This report has been updated HERE for June 2015.

The following report is outdated.  All current reports are indexed HERE.

The following post is for October 2012, two years ago.  Please select one of the links above for updated numbers.

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 (October 2012's) unemployment rate?   7.9%

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?

• Read below the graph.

The following chart shows the unemployment rate in three month intervals:  

Why are there two lines, one for "Seas Adjusted" and one for "Unadjusted"?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses seasonal adjustments to adjust for the volatility in the labor market from one month to the next.  The relatively even red line above shows the unemployment rate based on seasonally adjusted numbers.  The jagged green line shows the unemployment rate based on "real", "raw" numbers; the unadjusted rate.  Notice that the green line goes up in January (after holiday layoffs) and July (school-related layoffs), and it goes down in October and April, which are strong months for workers.  (Employees are all back to school in October, and employers are staffing up for the holidays.  Schools are also full in April and employers are starting to staff up for summer, construction, vacation venues, etc.)  The green line, however, reflects "reality":  Your friends, neighbors, and family members actually working or not working.  

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

This report has been updated for November  HERE: 
Private & Government Jobs Lost & Gained Since Obama Took Office (July 2013 Update)

January Jobs News Highlights HERE:

July 2013 Jobs News Highlights

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

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%.    
• 4,511,000 jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012.  That's an increase of 3.44%.
• In total, 194,000  jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were ADDED from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012.  That's an increase of 0.15%.
• We have experienced 25 months WITHOUT job losses since September 2010.  We have ADDED 3,870,000 jobs during those 25 months. 
• We now have 133,755,000 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%.    
• 4,897,000 jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012. 
• In total, 580,000  jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were ADDED from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012.   
• We now have 134,141,000 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 October in the next few days.)  

All jobs numbers & reports  (2013, 2012 & 2011 Updates) indexed HERE!!

How Many Jobs Lost or Added Under Obama? (July 2013 update)

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%.
• 4,972,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were GAINED OR CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012.  That's an increase of 4.56%.
• In total, 759,000 private sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) have been GAINED from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012.  That's a net increase of 0.7%. *
• We have experienced 32 months of positive private-sector job GROWTH from February 2010 until October 2012.  We have added 4,972,000 private-sector jobs during those 32 months.    
• We now have 111,744,000  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.  
• 5,425,000 PRIVATE-sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were GAINED OR CREATED from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012. 
• In total, 1,212,000 private sector jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) have been GAINED from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012. 
• We now have 112,197,000 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 October numbers in the next few days.)        

How many GOVERNMENT jobs have been lost or gained since Obama was inaugurated?  (Government jobs include federal, state, and local government jobs.)

• 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 463,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.10%.    
• In total, 565,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.54%.  A large portion of these jobs, about 200,000, have been lost in the "Local Government - Education" sector. (Teachers.)
• We have experienced decreases in the number of government jobs in 22 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 22,011,000 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 530,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the "trough" of the recession until now, October 2012.  That's a decrease of 2.10%.    
• In total, 709,000 GOVERNMENT jobs (in seasonally adjusted numbers) were LOST from the time Obama took office until now, October 2012.
• We now have 21,944,000 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 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!