Comparing Obama and Trump Economies on Jobs

Many jobs were gained during the Trump administration until the pandemic struck. How did this growth compare to the prior administration?

I wanted to compare the rate of job growth of the Trump and Obama administrations. I gathered data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics on job levels in the nonfarm, private, and government sectors.

I chose the period February 2017 to February 2020 for the Trump administration. This period starts with the first full month of the administration through the last full month before the pandemic. For comparison, I chose the same number of months from the end of the Obama administration, starting with January 2014 and ending with January 2017.

I produced a table and a chart, both shown below. I also asked ChatGPT to help me summarize this data. The “first period” is the tail of the Obama administration, and the “second period” is the Trump administration from its start to the pandemic. I added emphasis.

This table compares employment changes across two distinct 36-month periods for different sectors: nonfarm, private, and government. Here’s a breakdown:

Key Observations

Nonfarm and Private Sectors:
* Both sectors saw greater growth in the first period (2014-2017) compared to the second period (2017-2020).
* The average monthly change in employment was higher in the first period for both sectors.

Government Sector:
* The government sector had relatively modest growth in both periods.
* The average monthly growth was slightly higher in the second period (2017-2020) compared to the first period.

Overall, the table highlights that employment growth was stronger in the first period (2014-2017) compared to the second period (2017-2020) for the nonfarm and private sectors, while the government sector showed a slight increase in growth rate in the second period.