This U.S. President Oversaw the Best Job Market in American History

Presidents are always judged on their ability to “create jobs”, and usually the talking heads and political shills don’t really care how it’s done as long as the president they support can make the numbers go up. But who has been the most successful president when it comes to creating jobs? Does the growth in jobs really mean all that news anchors tell us it does?

As with any measure of a president’s success, one number doesn’t tell the whole story. But it does give some important context and information to judge the priorities and effectiveness of a particular administration. Here are the presidents in recent history ranked by their contribution to the growth of the labor market.

Background on Job Growth

If it feels like you’re worse off than people before the year 2000, that’s because you are. According to the Federal Reserve, the total job growth since the start of the new millennium has actually been negative. At the same time, wages have not kept up with inflation, worker and labor protections have been eviscerated, savings and retirement accounts have been wiped out by subsequent recessions, and wealth inequality is at its worst level ever. The money we earn today is worth a fraction of what it was a generation ago.

Growing monopolies, wealth inequality, weak worker protections, slow wage growth, and a powerful oligarchy have led around 68% of Americans to conclude that they are unhappy with the economy.

Despite this reality, politicians and news personalities love to focus on job growth, but experts and specialists have long argued that the job creation number isn’t very reliable or useful in the first place.

First, the number only excludes several sectors of the economy like anyone who is self-employed or works on a farm. So, someone who has to work multiple gig economy jobs to make ends meet isn’t included.

Second, these numbers count one person who has two jobs as two employed people. This is done as a balancing factor to the first issue, but it adds confusion to the final number.

Third, as with most economic numbers, much of it is influenced by factors outside a president’s control. For the first eight months of their first term, a president is operating with a budget passed by the previous president. Policies and laws implemented by one administration might not show any economic impact until the next president takes office.

For this list, we used data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes all non-farm employment.

#15 Donald Trump

• Annual percentage change in employment: -.51%

Donald Trump is the only president on this list to have an annual percentage change that is negative. Most of this is due to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only increased the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent recession but prolonged it unnecessarily.

#14 George W. Bush

• Annual percentage change in employment: 0.13%

Bush’s first priority upon entering the White House was to implement one of the largest tax cuts for the rich and deregulate the financial and banking industry. These decisions led directly to the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent recession.

Besides continuing the bad economic policies of his father and Reagan before him, Bush set the stage for many of the issues we deal with today, including wealth inequality and loss of civil liberties.

#13 George H. W. Bush

• Annual percentage change in employment: 0.61%

Bush continued the policies of Nixon and Reagan before him, gutting worker protections, and welfare programs, and cutting taxes for the wealthy. The country suffered two recessions during his presidency as a direct result of these policies, leading to enormous unemployment rates and a huge federal deficit.

#12 Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Annual percentage change in employment: 0.86%

When Eisenhower took office, the top marginal tax rate was 91%, and Republicans repeatedly pressured him to cut taxes for the rich. Eisenhower refused, and instead lowered the national debt. This meant that inflation was near zero during his entire presidency and he achieved a government surplus in three years of his eight-year term. Eisenhower expanded Social Security, strengthened minimum wage legislation, and increased public housing. As a result, the economy grew quickly and unemployment remained low.

#11 Barack Obama

• Annual percentage change in employment: 1.04%

Obama took over the White House in the middle of the Great Recession and the policies of Bush. He implemented a number of social programs and economic policies designed to help the country recover, including the Affordable Care Act. These policies led to the longest period of economic growth in the United States’ history, which only ended in a recession under President Trump.

#10 Gerald R. Ford

• Annual percentage change in employment: 1.08%

Ford continued the policies of Nixon before him, which were focused on the destruction of the policies and legislation passed by Kennedy and Johnson. This included tax cuts for the wealthy, the elimination of welfare programs and employment aid, and many other government departments designed to reduce income inequality and unemployment. These policies led to repeated recessions and economic stagnation.

#9 Ronald Reagan

• Annual percentage change in employment: 2.06%

Ronald Reagan campaigned on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, militarism, and anti-labor policies. He passed numerous tax acts that reduced taxes on the rich and undid decades of de-escalation with the USSR. He was active in attacking and weakening unions and destroying labor laws. This, combined with the deregulation of several industries, contributed to repeated recessions and the economic inequality today.

#8 Richard Nixon

• Annual percentage change in employment: 2.25%

Nixon became president on a wave of reactionary policies to undo the success of Kennedy and Johnson, who had created the strongest economy and labor force in the history of the United States.

His policies of deregulation, elimination of worker protections, and weakening of worker programs created an economic state now known as “stagflation” — a period of high inflation and economic stagnation.

#7 John F. Kennedy

• Annual percentage change in employment: 2.3%

Kennedy took office in the middle of the fourth recession since WWII, but he was able to increase the minimum wage, strengthen worker protections, create a number of welfare programs, and create a strong foundation for Johnson’s presidency after his death.

#6 Bill Clinton

• Annual percentage change in employment: 2.4%

Clinton took over the ruined economy left behind by Reagan and Bush, along with a huge government deficit and rising inflation and unemployment. He managed to avoid a recession during his entire presidency, something the presidents before him had not been able to do, all while creating a government budget surplus.

#5 Harry S. Truman

• Annual percentage change in employment: 2.49%

Truman was responsible for transitioning the United States from a war economy to a peace economy, avoiding a depression like what happened after WWI, all while two million citizens lost their jobs within just a few days of Japan surrendering. Truman was able to keep unemployment relatively low, but his bad relationship with labor unions, unrest, and the pressure from the growing conservative movement meant he had limited success.

#4 Jimmy Carter

• Annual percentage change in employment: 3.06%

Carter inherited a recession that started under Ford, made possible and exacerbated by Nixon and Ford’s deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy. Carter was given a chance to reverse course, but the period of stagflation that started under Nixon persisted through Carter’s administration. Even so, Carter’s policies contributed to growing job numbers that were immediately undone by Ronald Reagan.

#3 Joe Biden

• Annual percentage change in employment: 3.1%

Suffering through one of the worst recessions in recent history and the largest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich, Americans recognized that a return to Obama-era economics was the best solution, and voted Biden into office.

Joe Biden inherited the recession that started under Trump, and the policies that make recovery more difficult (including strong deregulation). He managed to improve the situation and improve worker protections and welfare programs, including capping drug prices and other policies.

#2 Lyndon B. Johnson

• Annual percentage change in employment: 3.8%

Johnson picked up the torch left behind by Kennedy and created the strongest labor markets in the history of the country. The high job creation and low unemployment are a testament to the wisdom behind Kennedy’s policies, which included expanding welfare, implementing jobs and worker programs, creating new labor protections, and more. This collection of legislation is known as the Great Society program which also introduced Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, many of its other features were removed by later right-wing presidents.

#1 Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Annual percentage change in employment: 5.53%

The only president on this list to be elected to three terms, Roosevelt created the New Deal program of policies and legislation designed to end the Great Depression, strengthen labor unions, improve and increase welfare, and increase economic growth. The New Deal was the foundation upon which Kennedy and Johnson based their Great Society policies.

Roosevelt created Social Security and numerous government agencies to regulate industry and protect regular citizens. He guaranteed the right of collective bargaining.

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