Who created more private sector jobs GW Bush or Obama?

Answer 1

It is difficult to make a fair comparison, since President Bush served for eight years, while President Obama is in his fourth. Also, each president faced various economic problems: both faced recessions, and President Obama inherited some problems from President Bush. That said, how the current president has dealt with the economy is the subject of considerable partisan debate. Thus, the answer to your question depends on which side you ask.

The Obama campaign insists that it has in fact created more private sector jobs at this point than President Bush did in the same time period. A typical example of this perspective can be found at ThinkProgress.org, where an economist wrote: "Since February of 2010, the 13th month of President Obama's term, the economy has added 4.3 million private sector jobs, a 4 percent increase. Under President Bush, the economy stopped shedding private sector jobs in July of 2003, fully 30 months into his administration. From that point until May of 2004, the economy added just 1.5 million private sector jobs, an increase of only 1.4 percent." Interestingly, President Bush did add jobs in the government, more government jobs than Mr. Obama has (Obama has reduced the number of government workers). As of June 2012, public sector employment is now down 608,000 workers since January 2009, a 2.7 percent decline. At the same point in President Bush's term, public sector employment was up 3.7 percent.

But a center-right economist writing for the website Factcheck.org took issue with many of these figures, saying that Mr. Obama had actually not created as many private sector jobs as his campaign claimed, and that both Bush and Obama had manipulated job numbers to make their party look good and the other party look bad. I enclose a link to that analysis.

Answer 2

During their respective presidencies, both George W. Bush and Barack Obama created jobs in the private sector. However, Obama's presidency saw a larger overall increase in private sector job growth as the economy recovered from the Great Recession. It is important to note that job creation is influenced by various factors and policies beyond the control of any president.