Trump Leaves Office With Three Million Less Jobs Than When He Entered
Donald Trump is set to leave Office with three million less jobs than when he became president, marking the worst presidential job record since the Great Depression.
Trump’s presidency, which has resulted in endless controversy, hundreds of protests and two impeachments, is set to come to an end when Joe Biden is inaugurated today, January 20.
With his approval ratings at an all-time low and his final weeks consumed by the Capitol riots, Trump was likely hoping to save face with some things he’s achieved throughout his term.
He has long proclaimed to have done wonders for the economy, previously stating he presided over the ‘greatest economy in the history of [America]’, but a jobs report released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics proves the success was fleeting.
When Trump was inaugurated in 2017, employment in the US was at 145.6 million, according to the report.
The president did see improvement during the first three years of his term, during which time the gross domestic product grew and unemployment rates declined; however, the coronavirus outbreak caused a roadblock to the improving numbers.
In December 2020, American employment was at 142.6 million, marking a decline of three million jobs. The last time employment fell during a presidential term was in 1933, with the departure of Herbert Hoover in the early period of the Great Depression.
The coronavirus outbreak proved detrimental to economies across the globe, with many employers unable to retain staff while losing their customers to stay-at-home orders. ABC News reports the unemployment rate reached a 50-year low of 3.5% in February before rocketing to 14.7% in April, following the outbreak. It receded to 6.7% as of last month.
An analysis by Fortune, cited by Newsweek, showed that US employment was increasing at an annualized rate of 1.5% before the pandemic hit. However, Trump is leaving office with a -0.5% annualized job growth rate.
In comparison, US employment showed 1% annualized growth under Barack Obama.
Speaking to The Washington Post about the figures, Howard University and AFL-CIO economist William Spriggs said:
He didn’t pump enough money to state and local governments. And we lost more jobs in state and local government than we did the whole of the Great Recession.
a month agoThough every government faced a difficult task in the coronavirus outbreak, economists have noted that the US economy suffered more than other nations due to Trump’s failure to implement a quick, clear response.
Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor, told ABC News:
The utter lack of a coherent, effective response to COVID has just done enormous damage to the economy.
After taking Office today, Biden plans to implement a science-based plan to get coronavirus under control.
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Topics: News, Coronavirus, Donald Trump, Economy, employment, jobs, Now, President
