THE job numbers in recent months have been disappointing, encouraging Republicans who hope that the slow pace of recovery will cause voters to reject President Obama.

But buried in the numbers was one accomplishment that serves only to emphasize how poorly the American economy has performed since 2000. The pace of creation of jobs in the private sector during the current administration is now greater than the pace in either of President George W. Bush’s terms in office.

Not that such an accomplishment is impressive. Since President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, private sector jobs have risen at an annual rate of one-tenth of 1 percent. Before the last decade, there had not been such a poor performance for any entire presidential term since 1960. But private sector jobs fell during President Bush’s first term, and rose at an annual rate of just 0.06 percent in his second term.

In January 2001, when Mr. Bush took office, there were 111,631,000 private sector jobs in the American economy. Nearly 12 years later — and after a gain of 4.6 million jobs since the number hit bottom in early 2010 — there are 231,000 fewer jobs.