It’s no secret that employment is
the top concern for Americans. It stands to reason, then, that politicians will
be hyping their proposals for job creation, and touting their respective
records on that front.
This week in Charlotte, NC, a number of
speakers — including the keynote, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro — touted job
growth under President Obama by citing what seems like an impressive figure:
“Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took
action, and now we’ve seen 4.5 million new jobs,” Castro said.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former
White House chief of staff, cited the same number. “Our economy has gone from
losing 800,000 jobs a month, to adding 4.5 million private-sector jobs in the
last 29 months,” Emanuel claimed.
Both statements are misleading, though
Emanuel’s is more factually grounded than Castro’s. The Chicago mayor is
correct, but his decision to focus only on the last 29 months is a deliberate
attempt to inflate the president’s record on job creation. Castro’s statement,
which did not include a time frame, is even more misleading.
Under President Obama, the U.S. economy
has created a net 415,000 private-sector jobs – less than 0.2% of
the 155 million-member American workforce. Castro and Emanuel chose the window
that they did — beginning in January 2010 — in order to maximize the apparent
job growth under Obama. But even that statistic does not tell the full story, since the workforce itself has shrunk dramatically in size since Obama took office. Labor force participation is at 63.5 percent, its lowest level (excluding 2012) since 1981. In other words, a large chunk of Americans have simply given uplooking for work. A significant number are collecting disability insurance instead, according to new research from Heritage’s James Sherk. 
