WHAT HAS OBAMA DONE, OBAMA TWITTER,
OBAMA SPEECH
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A scorecard on the economy under Barack Obama
By Louis Jacobson
Published on Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 4:01 p.m.
Published on Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 4:01 p.m.
See how the economy has changed since Obama was elected in 2008.
In the hotly contested presidential campaign between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney there is one undisputed point: the central issue is the state of the Americaneconomy.
End of agreement.
Were the country’s economic troubles deeper than expected when Obama took office in January 2009? Were his ideas and actions effective in righting the nation’s economic ship? Are things getting better? If so, are they getting better fast enough?
From both parties, the political rhetoric will be contentious for the next five months and, by its very nature, oversimplified. But below the fury there are objective metrics as to how the economy has performed on Obama’s watch and where it stands today.
PolitiFact.com, the independent fact-checking operation of the Tampa Bay Times, has produced a scorecard — key economic measures to track where the economy stood a year before Obama took office, where it was when he assumed power and how it has trended through May 2012.
We’ve gathered statistics for everything from corporate profits to the price of ground chuck. To help you see which ones are up or down, we’ve shaded most of the statistics from white (the most positive number) to dark (the least positive). We offer figures for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 — either an annual figure for the whole year or the monthly figure for January of that year. We also added a column for the most recent figures available.
Some analysis suggests the mixed record that most Americans feel:
• Gasoline prices, the rate of poverty, food stamp use and the federal debt are worse today than when the president took office.
• The unemployment rate, personal income and the stock market turned worse but are improving.
• Corporate profits, mortgage rates and the level of consumer debt are better today.
But the point of the scorecard is for you, the voters and consumers of political speech, to have factual measures by which to judge what you hear. The perspective you bring to it is all yours.
About these charts
To help you see how the numbers trend, we’ve shaded the statistics from white (the most positive number) to dark (the least positive). We haven’t shaded the numbers for government jobs because of differing opinions over whether more government employment is helpful to the economy.
Jobs | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate | 5% | 7.8% | 9.7% | 9.1% | 8.3% | 8.2% |
| Broader unemployment rate “U-6″ | 9.2% | 14.2% | 16.7% | 16.1% | 15.1% | 14.8% |
| White unemployment rate | 4.4% | 7.1% | 8.7% | 8.1% | 7.4% | 7.4% |
| Black unemployment rate | 9.1% | 12.7% | 16.5% | 15.7% | 13.6% | 13.6% |
| Hispanic unemployment rate | 6.5% | 10% | 12.6% | 12% | 10.5% | 11% |
| Total private-sector jobs | 115.6 M | 111 M | 106.8 M | 108.2 M | 110.5 M | 111 M |
| Total government jobs | 22.4 M | 22.6 M | 22.5 M | 22.2 M | 22 M | 22 M |
| Median weeks unemployed | 9 | 10.7 | 20.1 | 21.7 | 21.1 | 20.1 |
Income | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly GDP | $13.2 T | $12.7 T | $13.1 T | $13.3 T | – | $13.5 T |
| Disposable personal income per capita | $33,229 | $32,166 | $32,481 | $32,667 | – | $32,677 |
| Personal bankruptcies | 1,074,225 | 1,412,838 | 1,536,799 | 1,362,847 | – | – |
| Poverty rate | 12.5% | 13.2% | 14.3% | 15.1% | – | – |
| People receiving food stamps | – | 32 M | 39 M | 44 M | 46 M | 46 M |
Homes | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median home sale price | $232,400 | $208,600 | $218,200 | $240,100 | $221,700 | $235,700 |
| New homes sold in that month | 44,000 | 24,000 | 24,000 | 21,000 | 23,000 | 33,000 |
| Existing home sales, annualized | 4.2 M | 3.8 M | 4.2 M | 4.5 M | 4.6 M | 4.6 M |
| Foreclosure starts | 0.88% | 1.08% | 1.2% | 1.27% | 0.99% | 0.96% |
Business | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate profits | $1.2 T | $1.4 T | $1.8 T | $1.9 T | – | – |
| Bank failures | 25 | 140 | 157 | 92 | 61 | – |
| Corporate bankruptcies | 43,546 | 60,837 | 56,282 | 47,806 | – | – |
| Industrial production | 100.4 | 87.4 | 87.4 | 92.5 | 96.5 | 97.4 |
| Consumer confidence | 87.3 | 37.4 | 56.5 | 64.8 | 61.5 | 64.9 |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 13,044 | 9,035 | 10,584 | 11,671 | 12,397 | 12,393 |
| Labor productivity | 103 | 103 | 109 | 110 | 111 | – |
Prices | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall inflation | 4.3% | 0% | 2.6% | 1.6% | 2.9% | 2.3% |
| Food and beverage inflation | 4.8% | 5.2% | -0.4% | 1.8% | 4.4% | 3.1% |
| Loaf of white bread | $1.32 | $1.40 | $1.36 | $1.40 | $1.42 | – |
| Pound of ground chuck | $2.78 | $2.99 | $2.84 | $3.07 | $3.32 | – |
| Gallon of milk | $3.84 | $3.34 | $3.21 | $3.39 | $3.53 | – |
| Pound of apples | $1.28 | $1.11 | $1.07 | $1.13 | $1.18 | – |
| Pound of sugar | $0.51 | $0.57 | $0.63 | $0.66 | $0.71 | – |
| Gasoline prices | $3.16 | $1.74 | $2.72 | $3.12 | $3.36 | $3.73 |
| Residential natural gas per unit | $12.24 | $12.49 | $10.56 | $9.79 | $9.55 | $9.40 |
Debt and savings | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal savings rate | 5.4% | 5.1% | 5.3% | 4.7% | – | 3.9% |
| Outstanding credit card debt | $948.5 B | $955.5 B | $856.2 B | $794.7 B | $800.8 B | $803.6 B |
| Household debt rate | 18.4% | 18.5% | 17.4% | 16.2% | 15.9% | – |
| Mortgage rates | 5.76% | 5.06% | 5.03% | 4.76% | 3.92% | 3.91% |
Federal government | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | January 2012 | April/May 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal discretionary spending as percent of GDP | 7.9% | 8.9% | 9.4% | 9% | – | 8.5% |
| Federal mandatory spending as percent of GDP | 11.1% | 15% | 13.3% | 13.5% | – | 14.4% |
| Annual federal deficit | $458 B | $1.41 T | $1.29 T | $1.3 T | – | $1.33 T |
| Cumulative public debt | $5.14 T | $6.37 T | $7.81 T | $9.39 T | $10.45 T | $10.95 T |
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