Menzie Chinn on the Post-recession Employment Record

Dr. Chinn begins his post by quoting the President’s year-end list of accomplishments:

The Economy Is Growing And Creating Jobs. Since May 2003, the economy has added nearly 4.5 million new jobs. The unemployment rate is down to 5 percent – lower than the average for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Last quarter, the economy grew at 4.1 percent and has been growing steadily for more than two years.

He then provides some illuminating graphs to suggest that the employment record is not as great as advertised. For discussions of real wages, see James Hamilton.

Update: For those of you who decided to read the comments under Menzie’s post, you’ll see the old Household Survey canard again from “Kane” (signed Tim). Yes, the reported figure has risen by about 5 million since George W. Bush took office but let’s remember why they put the footnote that reads: “Data affected by changes in population controls in January 2000, January 2003, January 2004, and January 2005”. Let’s also remember that the employment to population ratio exceeded 64% in 2000 and is less than 63% now.