Obama’s record: Struggling to bring back jobs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obamas-record-struggling-to-bring-back-jobs/2012/10/18/f59c6bda-0403-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html

The economic downturn hit the nation’s job market with full force just as Barack Obama took office in January 2009, prompting the new president to mount an extraordinary response.

Obama worked with Congress to pour more than $1.1 trillion into shoring up the banking sector, rescuing Chrysler and General Motors and financing a massive stimulus bill.

The aggressive series of actions helped construct a floor under the most severe economic collapse since the Great Depression, many economists agree. Yet, the president’s policies have failed to ignite anything close to the robust jobs growth needed to overcome the horrific losses caused by the downturn.

Since the economy emerged from the deep recession in June 2009, employers have added an average of 87,000 jobs a month, according to the latest government figures. That is not quite enough to keep pace with the normal growth in the labor force, let alone significantly lower the unemployment rate. 

Overall, the economy has just over one million more jobs than it did in February 2009, Obama’s first full month in office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The tepid pace of job creation looms as perhaps the president’s biggest political vulnerability as his re-election campaign enters its final weeks. The unemployment rate had been stuck above 8 percent for 43 consecutive months before falling to 7.8 percent in September. Still, nearly 5 million Americans have been out of work for six months or more. 

With the economy struggling through one of the weakest recoveries on record and employers adding jobs at a slower rate than a year ago, projections are that the country’s jobless rate will not return to normal levels for years to come.