When Barack Obama inherited the presidency in 2008, America’s economy was in a tailspin. The country was losing 800,000 jobs each month. The unemployment rate that year reached a high of 7.3 percent, but kept climbing into the following year. By October of 2009, it was at 10 percent. But thanks in part to Obama’s economic stimulus package, the rate started declining steadily the following month. And as Politico’s Dan Diamond pointed out recently, it’s still dropping:
Average unemployment rate by year
2009: 9.3%
2010: 9.6%
2011: 8.9%
2012: 8.1%
2013: 7.4%
2014: 6.2%
2015: 5.3%
2016: 4.9%— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) November 4, 2016
That’s right, the unemployment rate under Obama has nearly been cut in half since he was elected. And instead of losing jobs, employers are now growing their employee rosters. Last month, for instance, employers added 161,000 new jobs. Diamond found other reasons to be optimistic about the U.S. economy:
Since Obama took office
– 11M new private sector jobs
– 20M-plus gained health insurance
– Unemployment has plunged pic.twitter.com/9Vf0YZARRN— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) November 4, 2016
When Obama took office, about 14 percent of Americans didn’t have health insurance. After the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – passed in 2010, more than 20 million people gained health insurance and the percentage of uninsured dropped by over 5 percent. But Obamacare wasn’t just good for the uninsured – it encouraged growth in the healthcare industry, which added some 2 million new jobs over the past six years.
Private sector employment. Data via Bureau of Labor Statistics, graphic via @ddiamond.
Using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Diamond created a handy graph of private sector employment over the past eight years. Private sector employment bottomed out at around 107 million employed people in 2010, but has ticked upward ever since. Since 2008, the country has gained about 11 million private sector jobs.
On top of all that, investment strategist George Pearkes pointed out recently that wage growth is now at 2.8 percent, up from a low of around 1.6 percent in late 2012.
lease save your narratives about how there's no wage growth and labor markets aren't tight, they're outdated. pic.twitter.com/bv97mBZjML
— George Pearkes (@pearkes) November 4, 2016
Our economy is far healthier now than it was eight years ago. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Almost two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) said they don’t have enough savings to cover a $500 emergency. And, as I’ve written elsewhere, 29 million of our fellow citizens are still without healthcare.
Now, if we could just get universal healthcare and replace that measly $7.25 per hour minimum wage with a livable income, we could really get our economy revving.
Featured image via CNN video screengrab.
