August 01, 2003 October is Koufax Pledge Drive month
More fun with graphs...
I was wondering how the length of this cycle of increasing unemployment compared to previous cycles. Once again, off I surfed to the BLS website, where they keep all kinds of historical data (just look for the dinosaur icon.) After building this chart on line, I used Paint to highlight the upward trends in the last five cycles of high unemployment.
The four previous upward trends all lasted between 24 and 27 months. Currently, in George W. Bush's employment melt-down, we're at month 25. Now, if the trend was in fact broken with July's 0.2% decrease, then this cycle will fit nicely in with the previous ones. So in this instance, Bush has the weight of history on his side.
[nota bene: The only full term presidents in the past 50 years who did not see an upward surge in unemployment were Johnson and Clinton. So not only are Democrats better at creating jobs, they're better at keeping them as well.]
MB, you must have seen PLA's post with statistics showing that since Herbert Hoover, every Dem President has done better than every GOP President at creating jobs.
Posted by: John Isbell at August 1, 2003 02:54 PMIf only the Democrats would point this out more often. Though I have to say that Dean did a good job bringing it up on Larry King tonight.
Posted by: natasha at August 5, 2003 01:56 AM