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<\/div>\nSummary<\/span><\/h3>\nThe numbers are nearly all in now. What they show about what really happened during the eight years that Barack Obama was president is sometimes different from what politicians claimed.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- The economy gained a net 11.5 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to below the historical norm.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Average\u00a0weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.1 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.<\/span><\/li>\n
- After-tax corporate profits also set records, as did stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 166 percent.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million. Premiums rose, but more slowly than before.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The federal debt owed to the public rose 128 percent. Deficits were rising as Obama departed.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Home prices rose 20 percent. But the home ownership rate hit the lowest point in half a century.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Illegal immigration declined: The Border Patrol caught 35 percent fewer people trying to get into the U.S. from Mexico.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Wind and solar power increased 369 percent. Coal production declined 38 percent. Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuel dropped 11 percent.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Production of handguns rose 192 percent, to a record level.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The murder rate dropped to the lowest on record in 2014, then rose and finished at about the same rate as when Obama took office.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/h3>\nAnalysis<\/span><\/h3>\nGathering statistics is a painstaking and time-consuming job. Figures on crime, household incomes and poverty in 2016 weren\u2019t released until September 2017, for example.<\/span><\/p>\nBut now we have a reasonably complete statistical picture of the Obama years, which began in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and ended with the highest level of household income ever recorded.<\/span><\/p>\nThese facts often turn out to be at odds with the impressions created by candidates who, for example, claimed wages and incomes were stagnant when in fact they were rising. The facts also can conflict with impressions created by news media reporting dramatic but untypical events. Despite nonstop coverage of several mass shootings, for example, the murder rate was going down for most of the Obama years, hitting the lowest ever recorded in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\nSome of these figures remain subject to tweaks and revisions. Figures on handgun production in 2016 are still \u201cpreliminary,\u201d for example, and others will remain subject to slight revisions for years to come, as statisticians routinely refine their methods and assumptions. We will keep this update current as necessary in the months and years to come. For now, it\u2019s as \u201cfinal\u201d as possible.<\/span><\/p>\nJobs and Unemployment<\/span><\/h3>\nJobs \u2014<\/strong> Over Obama\u2019s eight years in office, the economy added a net total of nearly 11.5 million jobs \u2014 a gain in total nonfarm employment of 8.6 percent,\u00a0according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Jobs-Gained-Chart3.png\")
<\/a>That percentage gain is not as large as for most other administrations since the end of World War II.<\/span><\/p>\nIn fact, the only other post-war administrations to see smaller gains in employment were those of Obama\u2019s predecessor, George W. Bush, who eked out a bare 1 percent gain, Dwight D. Eisenhower (7.1 percent in his eight years), and Bush\u2019s father, George H.W. Bush (2.5 percent during his four years).<\/span><\/p>\nJimmy Carter saw a much stronger employment gain \u2014 12.8 percent \u2014 despite the fact that his administration lasted only four years, half as long as Obama\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\nNote:<\/strong> For these historical comparisons, we\u2019ve begun with the inauguration of Harry Truman in 1949, when he became the first president elected after the end of World War II. For simplicity, we\u2019ve combined the administrations of Democrats John F. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson (who took office after Kennedy was assassinated), and of Republicans Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford (who served out the remainder of Nixon\u2019s second term after Nixon resigned), as though each were single eight-year administrations.<\/span><\/p>\nIn our graphics, we show Republican administrations in red, Democratic administrations in blue.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nObama had the unique disadvantage of taking office in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression<\/a>. More than 4 million jobs were lost in his first year in office, on top of the 4 million lost in George W. Bush\u2019s final year.<\/span><\/p>\nTo be sure, Bush\u2019s eight years were marked by two<\/em> recessions<\/a>, including one that began two months after he took office in 2001. That helps explain why job creation on his watch was by far the worst of any post-war administration.<\/span><\/p>\nBoth Bush and Obama also were bucking strong demographic trends. The\u00a0surging percentages of women entering the job market<\/a>, which started in the 1960s, peaked at the end of the Clinton administration. Also, \u201cbaby boomers\u201d \u2014 those born in the years after WWII veterans returned from the war to take up family life \u2014 reached retirement age in great numbers during Obama\u2019s time.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nLabor Force Participation \u2014 <\/strong>Because of these and other factors, relatively fewer people said they wanted<\/em> to work. Under Obama, the labor force \u2014 those either working or actively looking for a job \u2014 slipped from 65.7 percent of those age 16 and older to 62.9 percent.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nJob Openings \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>With relatively fewer people seeking employment, a job shortage changed to a worker shortage<\/a> under Obama. The Department of Labor reported that the number of unfilled job openings <\/a>more than doubled during Obama\u2019s time, hitting just under 6 million in July 2016. That was at the time the highest in the more than 16 years that Labor Department statisticians had tracked this number.<\/span><\/p>\nBefore Obama\u2019s tenure, the only time job openings topped 5 million was January 2001. During Obama\u2019s second term, there were 26 months with over 5 million openings. It has since continued to rise, topping 6 million for the first time in June 2017, under President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\nUnemployment \u2014<\/strong> The unemployment rate<\/a> was high when Obama took office \u2014 7.8 percent \u2014 and it continued to get worse in his first year. It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and didn\u2019t drop below 9 percent until two years after that.<\/span><\/p>\nBut slowly, and more or less steadily, the rate improved. By the time Obama left office, the jobless rate had dropped 3 full percentage points, an improvement exceeded only by the slightly bigger declines during the Clinton and Kennedy-Johnson administrations.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Unemployment-Rate-Change2.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nBy the time Obama left office, the jobless rate was down to 4.8 percent \u2014 well below the historical norm of 5.6 percent (the median rate for all the months since Truman\u2019s inauguration in January 1949).<\/span><\/p>\nBut getting down to that point was a long, slow grind. So slow that over all of Obama\u2019s 96 months in office, the median jobless rate was 7.7 percent \u2014 the highest for any administration since the end of World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Unemployment-Median.png\")
<\/a>Obama\u2019s experience is similar to that of Ronald Reagan \u2014 who presided over the second highest median jobless rate, 7.2 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nIn Reagan\u2019s first term, unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent \u2014 higher than Obama\u2019s 10 percent peak. And under Reagan, it stayed at or above 10 percent for 10 straight months starting in September 1982 \u2014 compared with Obama\u2019s one-month high of 10 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nLike Obama, Reagan also saw the rate decline steadily after the worst was over.<\/span><\/p>\nBy the time Reagan left office in January 1989, the rate was down to 5.4 percent, not far above Obama\u2019s final month at 4.8 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nBoth Obama<\/a> and Reagan<\/a> left office with job approval ratings above 50 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nIncome and Poverty<\/span><\/h3>\nThe inflation-adjusted incomes of American households reached the highest level ever recorded under Obama. The Census Bureau\u2019s measure of median household income<\/a> reached $59,039 in 2016. That was $2,963 more in \u201creal\u201d (inflation-adjusted) dollars than in 2008, for an overall gain of 5.3 percent.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Change-in-Median-HH-Income-3.png\")
<\/a>The median figure represents the midpoint \u2014 half of all households earned more, half less. And while real median income hit a record level in Obama\u2019s final year, it was a long, rough road to the top.<\/span><\/p>\nIn fact, the 5.3 percent gain under Obama barely made up for the 4.2 percent loss under his predecessor. And for his first six years in office, median income was below the level in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\nObama\u2019s 5.3 percent gain was less than the 13.9 percent gain under Bill Clinton, and the 8.1 percent gain under Reagan. It is also pushed up to a degree by a change in the Census Bureau\u2019s survey questions in 2014<\/a>, designed to correct for under-reporting of certain types of income in previous years.<\/span><\/p>\nThe trend to higher incomes also shows up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 monthly report on average weekly earnings for all workers, adjusted for inflation<\/a>. That figure, which includes salaried managers and supervisors, was 4.1 percent higher in the month Obama left office than it was in the month he first entered the White House. It was 3.7 percent higher for just\u00a0production and nonsupervisory employees<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nAs incomes rose, the rate of poverty<\/a> declined. The percentage of Americans living with income below the official poverty line went down to 12.7 percent of the population in 2016, a half-point drop compared with 2008<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Change-in-Poverty-Rate2.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nThat decline also wasn\u2019t nearly enough to reverse the 1.9 percentage point rise in poverty under George W. Bush, and it was far less than the 3.5 percentage point decline under Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd even though the rate of poverty went down under Obama, the number of people in poverty rose \u2014 just not as fast as the population in general. In 2016, just over 40.6 million Americans were still living below the poverty line, an increase of 787,000 people compared with 2008. Under George W. Bush, the number went up by more than 8 million, after going down by more than 6 million under Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\nHome Prices<\/span><\/h3>\nHome values rebounded under Obama, reaching a new high in his final year.<\/span><\/p>\nSales figures from the National Association of Realtors show the national median price of an existing, single-family home<\/a> was $235,500 in 2016. That was $38,900 higher than in 2008, an increase of 19.8 percent under Obama.<\/span><\/p>\nThe 2016 figure was a record, but only in raw dollars, without accounting for inflation. Prices reached their pre-recession high in 2006. In the decade between then and Obama\u2019s final year, home prices rose 6.1 percent, while the Consumer Price Index rose 19 percent.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nHome Ownership<\/span><\/h3>\nThe home ownership rate drifted down under Obama, touching the lowest point in more than half a century during his final year.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the second quarter of 2016,\u00a062.9 percent of households owned their own home, according to Census Bureau figures<\/a>. That ties the lowest point since the Census Bureau began collecting the figures. The last time the rate was that low was in the third quarter of 1965.<\/span><\/p>\nThe home ownership rate began its slide after peaking at 69.2 percent in the second quarter of 2004. It already had come down 1.7 percentage points before Obama took office, but it went down by a greater amount in his two terms as president.<\/span><\/p>\nIn Obama\u2019s last quarter, the rate rebounded to 63.7 percent, as the economy improved and sales of new<\/a> and existing<\/a> homes hit their best pace since before Obama entered office. But the ownership rate was still 3.8 percentage points lower than the quarter before he took office.<\/span><\/p>\nFood Stamps<\/span><\/h3>\nThe number of people receiving food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as \u201cfood stamps\u201d) rose by a third under Obama.<\/span><\/p>\nIn Obama\u2019s last month in office, there were just under 42.7 million Americans<\/a> receiving SNAP assistance, a gain of 10.7 million or just under 33.5 percent from January 2009<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nThe number grew as the 2007-2009 recession threw millions out of work, as benefit levels were boosted<\/a> for several years by the stimulus legislation Obama signed in 2009. The average benefit per person went up from around $113 per person in January 2009 to around $134 in July.<\/span><\/p>\nAt the peak of food stamp enrollment in December 2012, a total of 47.8 million were receiving aid, an increase of nearly 16 million or 49 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nBut then millions melted from the rolls as employment and incomes improved, and as Congress cut benefit levels, which dropped to a monthly average of around $124 per person in Obama\u2019s final month.<\/span><\/p>\nMeasured from his first month to his last, benefit levels and enrollment both grew less under Obama than under his predecessor.<\/span><\/p>\nUnder George W. Bush, the number of people getting food stamps grew by 14.7 million, or 85 percent (compared with the 10.7 million, 33 percent gain under Obama). The average monthly benefit per person grew from $73.89 in the month Bush took office to $113.60 the month he left. That\u2019s a 54 percent increase, compared with the 9 percent gain at the end of Obama\u2019s time in office.<\/span><\/p>\nCorporate Profits<\/span><\/h3>\nCorporations did much better than workers during Obama\u2019s time. Their profits hit several new yearly highs during his tenure.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Profits.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nProfits had surged under George W. Bush as well, but when Obama took office they had plunged from their previous peak in 2006, due to the financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn. Then they recovered quickly under Obama \u2014 far more quickly than jobs or personal incomes \u2014 and reached a new record in 2010, his second year in office.<\/span><\/p>\nFrom there they climbed even higher, setting more new annual records in 2012, 2013 and 2014, when they reached $1.74 trillion.<\/span><\/p>\nProfits<\/a> slipped a bit in 2015, but in Obama\u2019s final year profits were still $1.69 trillion \u2014 not far below the 2014 record and 57.3 percent higher than in 2008, the year before he took office.<\/span><\/p>\nThat gain was higher than during all but three other post-war administrations, behind the 122.7 percent gain under George W. Bush, the 124.5 percent gain during the Nixon-Ford years and the 87.5 percent gain during the Kennedy-Johnson years. It was only slightly higher than the 57.0 percent gain during Truman\u2019s final, four-year term.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/Profits-Change2.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nTechnical note: There are several ways to measure corporate profits. We present here the same historical measure followed by Federal Reserve Bank economists<\/a>, which gauges profits of U.S. corporations from all their global operations, after taxes and without adjustments for inflation, inventory changes or changes in capital (such as depreciation.) Annual figures go back to 1929, and can be found on line 45 of BEA\u2019s \u201cNational Income by Types of Income\u201d table (Table 1.12<\/a>).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nStock Prices<\/span><\/h3>\nOwners of corporate stocks also did quite well under Obama. The Standard & Poor\u2019s 500-stock average more than doubled \u2014 rising by 166 percent during his eight years in office.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.factcheck.org\/UploadedFiles\/SP-Chart2.png\")
<\/a>Among post-war administrations, that\u2019s second only to the 209 percent rise in the S&P index during Clinton\u2019s two terms, and it handily outpaced the 114 percent gain under Reagan.<\/span><\/p>\nTo some extent, the gain under Obama represents a rebound from an unusually depressed level. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 caused stock prices to plunge. By George W. Bush\u2019s last day in office, the S&P 500 stood 37 percent below where it had been on the last trading day before he first took office in 2001.<\/span><\/p>\nOther stock market indexes tell similar stories. The Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a> rose 138 percent under Obama after falling 22 percent under his predecessor, for example.<\/span><\/p>\nSome of the gain took place in the weeks just after Trump was elected, a \u201cTrump Rally\u201d<\/a> that many attribute at least partly to investor optimism that the president-elect would, once in office, cut taxes and regulation as promised. But the S&P rise between Election Day and Obama\u2019s last day in office was just under 6 percent \u2014 a small fraction of the entire gain during Obama\u2019s tenure. Stock prices already had set record after record before Trump\u2019s election, as we have written before<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nDebt and Deficits<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nThe federal debt more than doubled under Obama, and he left Trump a legacy of worsening deficits.<\/span><\/p>\nDebt \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0On the day Obama left office, the U.S. government\u2019s debt owed to the public<\/a> was more than $14.4 trillion, an increase of more than 128 percent during his eight years.<\/span><\/p>\nThe debt also has grown dramatically even when measured as a percentage of the growing economy<\/a>, from 52.3 percent of gross domestic product at the end of fiscal year 2009 to 77.0 percent as of the end of fiscal year 2016 on Sept. 30, 2016, according to historical budget figures from the Office of Management and Budget.<\/span><\/p>\nDeficits \u2014 <\/strong>Under Obama, annual federal deficits fell, but then turned up again.<\/span><\/p>\nThe deficit hit $1.4 trillion<\/a> in fiscal year 2009. As we\u2019ve documented elsewhere<\/a>, Obama inherited most of that deficit and signed spending measures that contributed as much as $203 billion to FY 2009\u2019s red ink.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter that, the yearly deficits declined<\/a> markedly for several years. In fiscal year 2015, the deficit was $438 billion, a drop of 69 percent from FY 2009.<\/span><\/p>\nBut deficits were again on the rise as Obama left office. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in June 2017 that the deficit for FY 2017 \u2014 which ends Sept. 30 and is the last one for which Obama signed spending bills \u2014 will increase to $693 billion<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nCBO also projects that under current law, annual deficits will again exceed $1 trillion in 2022 and beyond. As things stand, federal debt owed to the public will reach 80 percent of GDP in 2020, and more than 91 percent in 2027, CBO projects.<\/span><\/p>\nHealth Insurance<\/span><\/h3>\n
- \n
- The economy gained a net 11.5 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to below the historical norm.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Average\u00a0weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.1 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.<\/span><\/li>\n
- After-tax corporate profits also set records, as did stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 166 percent.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million. Premiums rose, but more slowly than before.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The federal debt owed to the public rose 128 percent. Deficits were rising as Obama departed.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Home prices rose 20 percent. But the home ownership rate hit the lowest point in half a century.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Illegal immigration declined: The Border Patrol caught 35 percent fewer people trying to get into the U.S. from Mexico.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Wind and solar power increased 369 percent. Coal production declined 38 percent. Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuel dropped 11 percent.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Production of handguns rose 192 percent, to a record level.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The murder rate dropped to the lowest on record in 2014, then rose and finished at about the same rate as when Obama took office.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\nAnalysis<\/span><\/h3>\n
Gathering statistics is a painstaking and time-consuming job. Figures on crime, household incomes and poverty in 2016 weren\u2019t released until September 2017, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n
But now we have a reasonably complete statistical picture of the Obama years, which began in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and ended with the highest level of household income ever recorded.<\/span><\/p>\n
These facts often turn out to be at odds with the impressions created by candidates who, for example, claimed wages and incomes were stagnant when in fact they were rising. The facts also can conflict with impressions created by news media reporting dramatic but untypical events. Despite nonstop coverage of several mass shootings, for example, the murder rate was going down for most of the Obama years, hitting the lowest ever recorded in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n
Some of these figures remain subject to tweaks and revisions. Figures on handgun production in 2016 are still \u201cpreliminary,\u201d for example, and others will remain subject to slight revisions for years to come, as statisticians routinely refine their methods and assumptions. We will keep this update current as necessary in the months and years to come. For now, it\u2019s as \u201cfinal\u201d as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n
Jobs and Unemployment<\/span><\/h3>\n
Jobs \u2014<\/strong> Over Obama\u2019s eight years in office, the economy added a net total of nearly 11.5 million jobs \u2014 a gain in total nonfarm employment of 8.6 percent,\u00a0according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a>That percentage gain is not as large as for most other administrations since the end of World War II.<\/span><\/p>\nIn fact, the only other post-war administrations to see smaller gains in employment were those of Obama\u2019s predecessor, George W. Bush, who eked out a bare 1 percent gain, Dwight D. Eisenhower (7.1 percent in his eight years), and Bush\u2019s father, George H.W. Bush (2.5 percent during his four years).<\/span><\/p>\n
Jimmy Carter saw a much stronger employment gain \u2014 12.8 percent \u2014 despite the fact that his administration lasted only four years, half as long as Obama\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong> For these historical comparisons, we\u2019ve begun with the inauguration of Harry Truman in 1949, when he became the first president elected after the end of World War II. For simplicity, we\u2019ve combined the administrations of Democrats John F. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson (who took office after Kennedy was assassinated), and of Republicans Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford (who served out the remainder of Nixon\u2019s second term after Nixon resigned), as though each were single eight-year administrations.<\/span><\/p>\n
In our graphics, we show Republican administrations in red, Democratic administrations in blue.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obama had the unique disadvantage of taking office in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression<\/a>. More than 4 million jobs were lost in his first year in office, on top of the 4 million lost in George W. Bush\u2019s final year.<\/span><\/p>\n
To be sure, Bush\u2019s eight years were marked by two<\/em> recessions<\/a>, including one that began two months after he took office in 2001. That helps explain why job creation on his watch was by far the worst of any post-war administration.<\/span><\/p>\n
Both Bush and Obama also were bucking strong demographic trends. The\u00a0surging percentages of women entering the job market<\/a>, which started in the 1960s, peaked at the end of the Clinton administration. Also, \u201cbaby boomers\u201d \u2014 those born in the years after WWII veterans returned from the war to take up family life \u2014 reached retirement age in great numbers during Obama\u2019s time.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
Labor Force Participation \u2014 <\/strong>Because of these and other factors, relatively fewer people said they wanted<\/em> to work. Under Obama, the labor force \u2014 those either working or actively looking for a job \u2014 slipped from 65.7 percent of those age 16 and older to 62.9 percent.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
Job Openings \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>With relatively fewer people seeking employment, a job shortage changed to a worker shortage<\/a> under Obama. The Department of Labor reported that the number of unfilled job openings <\/a>more than doubled during Obama\u2019s time, hitting just under 6 million in July 2016. That was at the time the highest in the more than 16 years that Labor Department statisticians had tracked this number.<\/span><\/p>\n
Before Obama\u2019s tenure, the only time job openings topped 5 million was January 2001. During Obama\u2019s second term, there were 26 months with over 5 million openings. It has since continued to rise, topping 6 million for the first time in June 2017, under President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n
Unemployment \u2014<\/strong> The unemployment rate<\/a> was high when Obama took office \u2014 7.8 percent \u2014 and it continued to get worse in his first year. It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and didn\u2019t drop below 9 percent until two years after that.<\/span><\/p>\n
But slowly, and more or less steadily, the rate improved. By the time Obama left office, the jobless rate had dropped 3 full percentage points, an improvement exceeded only by the slightly bigger declines during the Clinton and Kennedy-Johnson administrations.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nBy the time Obama left office, the jobless rate was down to 4.8 percent \u2014 well below the historical norm of 5.6 percent (the median rate for all the months since Truman\u2019s inauguration in January 1949).<\/span><\/p>\n
But getting down to that point was a long, slow grind. So slow that over all of Obama\u2019s 96 months in office, the median jobless rate was 7.7 percent \u2014 the highest for any administration since the end of World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a>Obama\u2019s experience is similar to that of Ronald Reagan \u2014 who presided over the second highest median jobless rate, 7.2 percent.<\/span><\/p>\nIn Reagan\u2019s first term, unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent \u2014 higher than Obama\u2019s 10 percent peak. And under Reagan, it stayed at or above 10 percent for 10 straight months starting in September 1982 \u2014 compared with Obama\u2019s one-month high of 10 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n
Like Obama, Reagan also saw the rate decline steadily after the worst was over.<\/span><\/p>\n
By the time Reagan left office in January 1989, the rate was down to 5.4 percent, not far above Obama\u2019s final month at 4.8 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n
Both Obama<\/a> and Reagan<\/a> left office with job approval ratings above 50 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n
Income and Poverty<\/span><\/h3>\n
The inflation-adjusted incomes of American households reached the highest level ever recorded under Obama. The Census Bureau\u2019s measure of median household income<\/a> reached $59,039 in 2016. That was $2,963 more in \u201creal\u201d (inflation-adjusted) dollars than in 2008, for an overall gain of 5.3 percent.
<\/a>The median figure represents the midpoint \u2014 half of all households earned more, half less. And while real median income hit a record level in Obama\u2019s final year, it was a long, rough road to the top.<\/span><\/p>\nIn fact, the 5.3 percent gain under Obama barely made up for the 4.2 percent loss under his predecessor. And for his first six years in office, median income was below the level in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s 5.3 percent gain was less than the 13.9 percent gain under Bill Clinton, and the 8.1 percent gain under Reagan. It is also pushed up to a degree by a change in the Census Bureau\u2019s survey questions in 2014<\/a>, designed to correct for under-reporting of certain types of income in previous years.<\/span><\/p>\n
The trend to higher incomes also shows up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 monthly report on average weekly earnings for all workers, adjusted for inflation<\/a>. That figure, which includes salaried managers and supervisors, was 4.1 percent higher in the month Obama left office than it was in the month he first entered the White House. It was 3.7 percent higher for just\u00a0production and nonsupervisory employees<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
As incomes rose, the rate of poverty<\/a> declined. The percentage of Americans living with income below the official poverty line went down to 12.7 percent of the population in 2016, a half-point drop compared with 2008<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nThat decline also wasn\u2019t nearly enough to reverse the 1.9 percentage point rise in poverty under George W. Bush, and it was far less than the 3.5 percentage point decline under Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n
And even though the rate of poverty went down under Obama, the number of people in poverty rose \u2014 just not as fast as the population in general. In 2016, just over 40.6 million Americans were still living below the poverty line, an increase of 787,000 people compared with 2008. Under George W. Bush, the number went up by more than 8 million, after going down by more than 6 million under Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n
Home Prices<\/span><\/h3>\n
Home values rebounded under Obama, reaching a new high in his final year.<\/span><\/p>\n
Sales figures from the National Association of Realtors show the national median price of an existing, single-family home<\/a> was $235,500 in 2016. That was $38,900 higher than in 2008, an increase of 19.8 percent under Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n
The 2016 figure was a record, but only in raw dollars, without accounting for inflation. Prices reached their pre-recession high in 2006. In the decade between then and Obama\u2019s final year, home prices rose 6.1 percent, while the Consumer Price Index rose 19 percent.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
Home Ownership<\/span><\/h3>\n
The home ownership rate drifted down under Obama, touching the lowest point in more than half a century during his final year.<\/span><\/p>\n
In the second quarter of 2016,\u00a062.9 percent of households owned their own home, according to Census Bureau figures<\/a>. That ties the lowest point since the Census Bureau began collecting the figures. The last time the rate was that low was in the third quarter of 1965.<\/span><\/p>\n
The home ownership rate began its slide after peaking at 69.2 percent in the second quarter of 2004. It already had come down 1.7 percentage points before Obama took office, but it went down by a greater amount in his two terms as president.<\/span><\/p>\n
In Obama\u2019s last quarter, the rate rebounded to 63.7 percent, as the economy improved and sales of new<\/a> and existing<\/a> homes hit their best pace since before Obama entered office. But the ownership rate was still 3.8 percentage points lower than the quarter before he took office.<\/span><\/p>\n
Food Stamps<\/span><\/h3>\n
The number of people receiving food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as \u201cfood stamps\u201d) rose by a third under Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n
In Obama\u2019s last month in office, there were just under 42.7 million Americans<\/a> receiving SNAP assistance, a gain of 10.7 million or just under 33.5 percent from January 2009<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
The number grew as the 2007-2009 recession threw millions out of work, as benefit levels were boosted<\/a> for several years by the stimulus legislation Obama signed in 2009. The average benefit per person went up from around $113 per person in January 2009 to around $134 in July.<\/span><\/p>\n
At the peak of food stamp enrollment in December 2012, a total of 47.8 million were receiving aid, an increase of nearly 16 million or 49 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n
But then millions melted from the rolls as employment and incomes improved, and as Congress cut benefit levels, which dropped to a monthly average of around $124 per person in Obama\u2019s final month.<\/span><\/p>\n
Measured from his first month to his last, benefit levels and enrollment both grew less under Obama than under his predecessor.<\/span><\/p>\n
Under George W. Bush, the number of people getting food stamps grew by 14.7 million, or 85 percent (compared with the 10.7 million, 33 percent gain under Obama). The average monthly benefit per person grew from $73.89 in the month Bush took office to $113.60 the month he left. That\u2019s a 54 percent increase, compared with the 9 percent gain at the end of Obama\u2019s time in office.<\/span><\/p>\n
Corporate Profits<\/span><\/h3>\n
Corporations did much better than workers during Obama\u2019s time. Their profits hit several new yearly highs during his tenure.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nProfits had surged under George W. Bush as well, but when Obama took office they had plunged from their previous peak in 2006, due to the financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn. Then they recovered quickly under Obama \u2014 far more quickly than jobs or personal incomes \u2014 and reached a new record in 2010, his second year in office.<\/span><\/p>\n
From there they climbed even higher, setting more new annual records in 2012, 2013 and 2014, when they reached $1.74 trillion.<\/span><\/p>\n
Profits<\/a> slipped a bit in 2015, but in Obama\u2019s final year profits were still $1.69 trillion \u2014 not far below the 2014 record and 57.3 percent higher than in 2008, the year before he took office.<\/span><\/p>\n
That gain was higher than during all but three other post-war administrations, behind the 122.7 percent gain under George W. Bush, the 124.5 percent gain during the Nixon-Ford years and the 87.5 percent gain during the Kennedy-Johnson years. It was only slightly higher than the 57.0 percent gain during Truman\u2019s final, four-year term.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nTechnical note: There are several ways to measure corporate profits. We present here the same historical measure followed by Federal Reserve Bank economists<\/a>, which gauges profits of U.S. corporations from all their global operations, after taxes and without adjustments for inflation, inventory changes or changes in capital (such as depreciation.) Annual figures go back to 1929, and can be found on line 45 of BEA\u2019s \u201cNational Income by Types of Income\u201d table (Table 1.12<\/a>).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Stock Prices<\/span><\/h3>\n
Owners of corporate stocks also did quite well under Obama. The Standard & Poor\u2019s 500-stock average more than doubled \u2014 rising by 166 percent during his eight years in office.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a>Among post-war administrations, that\u2019s second only to the 209 percent rise in the S&P index during Clinton\u2019s two terms, and it handily outpaced the 114 percent gain under Reagan.<\/span><\/p>\nTo some extent, the gain under Obama represents a rebound from an unusually depressed level. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 caused stock prices to plunge. By George W. Bush\u2019s last day in office, the S&P 500 stood 37 percent below where it had been on the last trading day before he first took office in 2001.<\/span><\/p>\n
Other stock market indexes tell similar stories. The Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a> rose 138 percent under Obama after falling 22 percent under his predecessor, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n
Some of the gain took place in the weeks just after Trump was elected, a \u201cTrump Rally\u201d<\/a> that many attribute at least partly to investor optimism that the president-elect would, once in office, cut taxes and regulation as promised. But the S&P rise between Election Day and Obama\u2019s last day in office was just under 6 percent \u2014 a small fraction of the entire gain during Obama\u2019s tenure. Stock prices already had set record after record before Trump\u2019s election, as we have written before<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
Debt and Deficits<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
The federal debt more than doubled under Obama, and he left Trump a legacy of worsening deficits.<\/span><\/p>\n
Debt \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0On the day Obama left office, the U.S. government\u2019s debt owed to the public<\/a> was more than $14.4 trillion, an increase of more than 128 percent during his eight years.<\/span><\/p>\n
The debt also has grown dramatically even when measured as a percentage of the growing economy<\/a>, from 52.3 percent of gross domestic product at the end of fiscal year 2009 to 77.0 percent as of the end of fiscal year 2016 on Sept. 30, 2016, according to historical budget figures from the Office of Management and Budget.<\/span><\/p>\n
Deficits \u2014 <\/strong>Under Obama, annual federal deficits fell, but then turned up again.<\/span><\/p>\n
The deficit hit $1.4 trillion<\/a> in fiscal year 2009. As we\u2019ve documented elsewhere<\/a>, Obama inherited most of that deficit and signed spending measures that contributed as much as $203 billion to FY 2009\u2019s red ink.<\/span><\/p>\n
After that, the yearly deficits declined<\/a> markedly for several years. In fiscal year 2015, the deficit was $438 billion, a drop of 69 percent from FY 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n
But deficits were again on the rise as Obama left office. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in June 2017 that the deficit for FY 2017 \u2014 which ends Sept. 30 and is the last one for which Obama signed spending bills \u2014 will increase to $693 billion<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
CBO also projects that under current law, annual deficits will again exceed $1 trillion in 2022 and beyond. As things stand, federal debt owed to the public will reach 80 percent of GDP in 2020, and more than 91 percent in 2027, CBO projects.<\/span><\/p>\n
Health Insurance<\/span><\/h3>\n
- Average\u00a0weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.1 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.<\/span><\/li>\n