CLEVELAND, Ohio - Donald Trump can accurately say the nation has added nearly 6.6 million jobs since he took office. Yet his opponents can be just as correct in saying growth each year has fallen short of what occurred during Barack Obama’s final term.

Such is the nature of using monthly jobs reports from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as a tool to make political hay.

There often is enough room for most skilled politicians to work things to their advantage - though the raw jobs count does not address pay, nor does it differentiate between full- and part-time work (someone filling two jobs counts twice in these numbers).

But since politicians will be using these numbers, it’s worth a look back to past presidents now that a full three years of data is in the books for Trump.

Recent growth

While the nation has picked up 6.6 million jobs (4.5%) during the first three years under Trump, it had gained an even stronger 8.1 million jobs (5.9%) during the final three years under Obama.

By year, the number of jobs grew 2.2%, 1.8% and 1.72% during Obama’s final three years - with growth slipping some each year - and 1.4%, 1.67% and 1.37% in the first three years under Trump.

The chart below shows what the trend looks like since the recession of 2007-09.

The U.S. added just over 2 million jobs in the last year, a gain of 1.37%. Here are the annual numbers since the recession, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Presidents by term

The U.S. economy has added 6,559,000 jobs during Trump’s three years in office, based on the preliminary estimate for January.

If the pace of job growth over Trump’s first three years continues, he would close out four years in January with a total gain of 8,745,333 jobs (up 6% since taking office) - roughly in the middle of the pack for recent presidents.

Among those ranking better: Bill Clinton’s first term (up 11.6 million jobs, or 10.5%), Clinton’s second term (up 11.3 million jobs, or 9.3%), Ronald Regan’s second term (up 10.8 million jobs, or 11.2%), Obama’s second term (up 10.4 million jobs, or 7.7%).

Among those ranking worse: George W. Bush’s first term (up 76,000 jobs, or 0.06%), Obama’s first term (up 1.2 million jobs, or 0.9%), George W. Bush’s second term (1.3 million jobs, up 1%), and George H.W. Bush’s term (up 2.6 million jobs, or 2.6%).

Here’s a summary with each president through their four-year terms, using the latest estimates available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which sometimes goes back to revise earlier estimates.

Term President Jobs end of term Jobs added Pct. Gain 1977-81 Carter 91,033,000 10,343,000 12.82% 1981-85 Reagan 96,372,000 5,339,000 5.86% 1985-89 Reagan 107,161,000 10,789,000 11.20% 1989-93 H.W. Bush 109,794,000 2,633,000 2.46% 1993-97 Clinton 121,363,000 11,569,000 10.54% 1997-01 Clinton 132,698,000 11,335,000 9.34% 2001-05 W. Bush 132,774,000 76,000 0.06% 2005-09 W. Bush 134,055,000 1,281,000 0.96% 2009-13 Obama 135,263,000 1,208,000 0.90% 2013-17 Obama 145,627,000 10,364,000 7.66% x-2017-20 Trump 152,186,000 6,559,000 4.50% x-2017-21 Projected 154,372,333 8,745,333 6.01%

x-Note: Trump’s 2017-20 numbers are for only three years, instead of four for every other president in the chart. The projection for 2017-21 is based on adding the average gain in jobs from 2017-20 to the total for the final year of a four-year term.

Democratic or Republican

Going back 32 years allows for a comparison during which the White House was held equally - 16 years for Republicans and 16 for Democrats. This starts with Ronald Reagan’s final year in office - January 1988 to January 1989.

During these 32 years, 34.5 million jobs were added while Democrats were in the White House (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama), and 14 million during Republican presidencies (Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Trump).

During other time periods since in which the White House was evenly split among the two parties:

The last 22 years starting with 1998-99 (Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump): 19.5 million jobs added under Democrats; 7.9 million under Republicans.

The last 16 years starting with 2004-05 (George W. Bush, Obama, Trump): 11.6 million jobs added under Democrats; 9.8 million under Republicans.

The last six years starting with 2014-15: 8.1 million jobs under Democrat Obama; 6.6 million under Republican Trump.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See more data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.

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