COMMITTEE on WAYS and MEANS

Chairman Dave Camp

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10 Key Facts on Jobs and Unemployment
Data Reflects September 2012 Jobs Report Released October 5, 2012
Friday, October 05, 2012
1. 4.1 Million Fewer Jobs than Projected: In January 2009 the Obama Administration forecast there would be 137.6 million jobs in December 2010.  Instead there were 130.3 million jobs in December 2010.  Even 21 months later in September 2012, there are just 133.5 million jobs – 4.1 million fewer than the Administration’s forecast for late 2010.

2. Slower Jobs Recovery than during the Great Depression: This is the only “recovery” since World War II when jobs lost in the recession had not been recovered by this point.  In fact, the recent pace of job creation during the “Obama recovery” has been slower than during the Great Depression.

 3. Less Full Time Work: Since January 2009 the number of full-time employees has fallen by over 600,000 while part-time employment has grown by almost 1.4 million.  This means part-time workers account for all of the net employment growth in the Obama years – the opposite of what Democrats predicted when they said their stimulus plan was “likely to move many workers from part-time to full-time work.”

4. Manufacturing Jobs Down: Since January 2009 over 600,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated, the opposite of the Administration’s projected increase of 408,000 manufacturing jobs due to their trillion-dollar stimulus.

5. Ten Times More New Dropouts than New Employees: During the Obama Administration, the number of people not in the labor force has grown by 8.2 million while total employment has grown by less than 800,000.  This means that during the Obama years new workforce dropouts have outnumbered new employees by 10 to 1.

6. Far Higher Unemployment Rate than Projected:  September’s 7.8% unemployment rate remains far above the 5.5% rate the Administration predicted for this month in their January 2009 report on the projected effects of stimulus.  Democrats actually predicted unemployment would fall to 7.8% in September 2009 – a full three years ago.
7. Real Unemployment Is Almost 11%: If the unemployment rate included the “invisible unemployed” (discouraged workers who dropped out or never joined the workforce), the September 2012 unemployment rate would be 10.9%:


8. More Unemployed Now than When Economy Was in “Free-Fall”: In September 2012 there were 12.1 million officially unemployed workers.  That’s 39,000 more than when President Obama took office in January 2009 – when the Administration said “we were in economic free-fall.” 

9. Two Million More Long-term Unemployed: In September 2012 there were 4.8 million long-term unemployed (that is, for over six months) – over two million more than when President Obama took office in January 2009.

 10. Economic Misery up 80%: The “Obama Misery Index” shows that unemployment and debt have risen by a combined 80% since the start of the Obama Administration.

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