Job growth under Bush slower than under Clinton and Reagan

WASHINGTON -- The economy has cranked out fewer jobs under President Bush -- by millions -- than it had by the same point in the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.\nDemocrats say it's evidence that Bush's economic policies aren't working.\nCommerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez counters, in an interview, "It's just a matter of timing and when we started getting out of the recession that the president inherited."\nEconomists suggest something fundamentally different also may be going on in the economy: The labor force of available workers is growing more slowly as the baby-boom generation ages.\nUnder Bush, the economy produced 3.7 million new jobs from January 2001 through December of last year based on nonfarm payroll figures collected by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.\nThat figure is likely to be higher -- perhaps by an additional 810,000 -- when the government releases annual revisions based on more complete information next month. However, that doesn't change the basic historical picture.\nWhen Clinton was in the White House, the economy generated 17.6 million jobs during the corresponding period, from January 1993 to December 1998. Under Reagan, 9.5 million jobs were created from January 1981 to December 1986.\nThose are the two most-recent two-term presidents before Bush. Some 2.6 million jobs were created during the four-year term of Bush's father, who took office in January 1989.\nReagan had two recessions, one of which began in July 1981 and ended in November 1982. It was the most severe recession since the Great Depression, pushing the monthly unemployment rate as high as 10.8 percent.