Obama’s November Jobs Deficit One More Reason to Extend Bush Tax Cuts

J.D. Foster / December 03, 2010

“You are what your record says you are.” So says Bill Parcells, three-time Super Bowl–winning coach. Professional sports, athletes, coaches, and commentators can spin the numbers with the best of politicians, but in the end you are what your record says you are. The record on the first two years of President Obama’s economic policies is pretty dismal: publicly issued national debt up $2.9 trillion, unemployment rate jumping to 9.8 percent, and Obama’s personal metric—the Obama jobs deficit—a lofty 7.3 million workers.

The Obama Jobs Deficit

President Obama promised during the 2008 campaign (and after) that under his policies the economy would create millions of new jobs by the end of 2010. Well, we’ve reached the end of 2010. He also insisted that he be held accountable for these results. The Obama jobs deficit, which stands at 7.3 million jobs, measures the extent to which he has failed to deliver on his promised job creation. And as we saw in the midterm elections, his allies in Congress, governors’ mansions, and state legislations across the country were held accountable, paying a heavy price for Obama’s failure to perform.

The President’s original target for jobs creation set during the campaign in the fall of 2008 was 2.5 million jobs. But as employment fell at the end of 2008, he increased the employment target by 1 million to 3.5 million jobs. At the time, employment stood at about 135.1 million, according to the Department of Labor’s most commonly used measure. This establishes the current Obama jobs target at 138.6 million. (more…)