- Vice President Mike Pence claimed on Fox News on Wednesday that the Trump administration “has created more jobs” in the last three months “than Joe Biden and Barack Obama created in their eight years in office. “
- Experts were quick to point out that Pence left April, when the US lost 20.8 million jobs. The economy has since recovered just under half of this, as about 9 million.
- The two-term economy of Obama recorded a net total of 11.6 million job gains.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
During a Fox News interview on Wednesday night, Vice President Mike Pence claimed that the Trump administration had created more jobs in the past three months than President Barack Obama did in two terms.
The striking claim put a rapid backlog on Twitter.
Pence told Sean Hannity of Fox News that President Donald Trump had led the country “through the worst pandemic in 100 years”, adding, “We’ve already created more jobs in the last three months than Joe Biden and Barack Obama in their eight years in office. “
However, experts were quick to note that Pence left April, when the U.S. economy lost 20.8 million jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak. It has since recovered about 9 million of these, or just under half.
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Under the Obama administration, the economy added a net total of 11.6 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If the April figure is recorded, the US is down 11.8 million jobs, compared to directly before the pandemic.
Betsey Stevenson, who was an economist at Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, shared a chart on Twitter illustrating the nation’s deep jobs.
—Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) August 13, 2020
Other experts said the Trump administration had cherry-picked the economic data.
—Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) August 13, 2020
—Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 13, 2020
—Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) August 13, 2020
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The jobs report for July, released last week, said the U.S. had 1.8 million jobs back and that the unemployment rate stood at 10.2%, higher than at any point during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. Pence included additional gains from June and May in his claim.
Here are the latest job data back to April:
- April: 20.8 million jobs lost.
- May: 2.7 million jobs renewed.
- June: 4.8 million jobs renewed.
- July: 1.8 million jobs renewed.
Trump has been pushing to reopen the economy since many states shut down in April, arguing that measures to curb the spread of the virus were more harmful than the virus itself.
Experts have said the loose restrictions and disastrous federal response set the stage for another rise in infections last month that led to more deaths and furthered the economic recovery.
Although presidents usually have limited influence on the economy, voters’ perceptions of their health can play a large role in who they vote for every four years.
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