Trump’s Real Record On Unemployment In Two Graphs – OpEd
By Dean Baker
Donald Trump and his supporters routinely boast about his great success in reducing the unemployment rate.
While the unemployment rate did fall to low levels under Trump, this was just a continuation of the downward trend that had been in place under Obama since 2010.
Here’s the picture with the overall unemployment rate.
See the sharp drop for the Trump years? Yeah, I don’t either. By the way, I am being very polite in leaving out the impact of the pandemic, which would show unemployment soaring. That has not happened in most other countries because their leaders were better able to deal with the pandemic and the economy.
Here’s the picture for the Black unemployment rate since Trump apparently thinks his administration has been great for Blacks.
We see the same story here as with the overall unemployment rate, the continuation of a downward trend, albeit at a slower pace, than had been going on for years. Trump can take credit for not crashing the economy, until the pandemic, but that really is not all that much to boast about.
This article first appeared on Dean Baker’s Beat the Press blog.
Trump reduced the unemployment rate from 4.2 percent under Obama to 3.5 percent for one month only. Trump’s reduction of unemployment rate was about a half of one percentage point which lasted for about one month. This is on the assumption that Trump’s unemployment rate is not Fake News which is a very weak assuption.
This reduction was caused by a huge tax cut for more than one trillion dollars to benefits the wealthy and financiers who have no contributions to the unemployment decline. It has also associated with a higher government spending which was financed by browing and increasing the national debt. The reduction of Trump’s unemployment was associated with a cut in social programs which affected many social groups. All these elements have caused the dollar to weaken and the dollar is in its way to lose the status of reserve currency.
In short, Trump’s economic elements have been calamity on the US economy and the world economy. This is because they have generated world recession through the Trump’s tariffs which have destroyed many American farmers as well. Trump’s economic vision is deadly vision and this is why the world discontinued using tariffs and sanctions in the past.